


Child's Play

by squirrellysemantics



Category: Assassin's Creed, Doctor Who
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Sexual Content, Slash, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-06-20
Updated: 2011-08-07
Packaged: 2017-10-13 04:42:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squirrellysemantics/pseuds/squirrellysemantics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonardo receives a visit from an old friend. This goes about as smoothly as one might expect.  Spoilers for AC2 ending and season 5 of Doctor Who</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I own neither AC2 or DW and make no money from this.  
============

Desmond tried to blink away the vertigo that always accompanied a desynchronization.  It was bad enough he was right on the edge of losing his breakfast since the Animus had been kicking him out of memories all morning.

“Sorry, Desmond,” Rebecca said, looking almost ashamed at his green face. She returned her focus to her monitor and clattered away at a few select buttons.  “Not sure why this keeps happening.”

“I know!” Shaun interjected ever so helpfully, gently cooling his tea with a puff of air.  “Maybe it would work if Desmond weren’t so ham fisted at his job!”

An eye roll was all the bastard was going to get as Desmond eased his head back against the headrest, willing his stomach to cut him some slack.

“It’s not his fault!” the woman shot back, already on the defensive.  “Superficially the memory doesn’t _look_ corrupted but it keeps kicking him out.”  Her long fingers fiddled with her headset, too full of nervous energy.  “It’s like something doesn’t _want_ him there.”

Whatever animosity the Englishman held for the other man, it was obvious he couldn’t resist a riddle.  With a dismissive little ‘hmph’ Shaun pored over the woman’s screen, not completely able to mask the full extent of his curiosity.   “What were you trying to access?”

“All signs pointed to something big happening when Ezio returns to Venice after opening the Vault,” Rebecca explained, pointing out a few data points on her screen.  “We skipped ahead to where it looks nice and juicy but it keeps throwing us back out.  I’ve tried a couple of different entry points and it’s all been no-go.”

The thread of DNA whirled on her monitor as Shaun tabbed through the memories at blazing speed.  It didn’t seem possible that he could process information that quickly. 

“There!”  The historian jabbed his finger at one particular polygon floating placidly on screen.  “Try there!”

Rebecca shot him a dubious look.  “Some doctor’s visit?  We have about a billion of those.  What’s so special about-“

“Just do it, all right?” Shaun snapped, pointedly shoving his glasses back up the bridge of his nose.  Rebecca got to tapping away at her keyboard right away.

“You really think this is going to work?” asked Desmond with a hint of desperation.  “”Cause if it doesn’t I’m going to need a barf bag.”

A rare flash of self-doubt crossed Shaun’s face.  “It’ll work.  It feels… right.”

Desmond gave a little nod and closed his eyes, trying to prepare for the disconcerting feel of the Animus sucking at your soul.  There was a clatter on the floor to his right and his eyes shot open again. The only things different were the waste basket that had suddenly appeared within reach of his chair and the historian’s back as he fled to his station.

Rebecca looked up from her station, oblivious to anything but the task at hand.  “Ready?”

“Let’s do this.”

The world went white.

\---------------------

Ezio looked out over the rooftops of Venice.  He realized that it may have felt like years since he had last done so, it had only been a matter of months.  The events in Roma had changed everything, _warped_ everything and he had returned to Venice to fulfill his sole desire for a taste of the familiar. 

The familiar being one person who bore the name ‘Leonardo’.

“Da Vinci!  One of the most brilliant minds this world has known and will ever know!” 

It took a moment for Ezio to realize this bold proclamation had been spoken by another and had not come from within his own thoughts. The words consumed his attention instantly.  It was exceedingly rare that he heard someone speak of anyone he knew in such glowing terms, much less someone so dear to him.  Glancing cautiously over the edge, Ezio scanned the crowds filling the markets below.  The swarm of bodies made it difficult to distinguish who had been speaking but thankfully the one doing the proclaiming seemed thoroughly enamored by the sound of his own voice.

“It’s 1499.  He hasn’t painted the Mona Lisa yet, but The Last Supper is already considered a masterpiece covering the back wall of a monastery in Milan.”  You could hear the excitement in the mystery man’s voice.  “Just imagine.  Leonardo da Vinci personally decorating your living room!  I’m pretty sure we’ve already met so we’ll just pop round for a nice cuppa, all right?”

Ezio mused on this.  What a strange turn of phrase.  The voice spoke of the future as if it were history.  He spotted them.  How could he not?  The bizarrely dressed man with an unusual cravat, long limbed and lanky accompanied by a young girl with a shock of red hair.  He followed them.

“Doooctor,” came a girl’s voice, her Italian sounding unusually accented to his ears.  “The art history tour is wonderful and all, and believe me I _loved_ meeting Vincent,   but I thought it would be nice to do something a little more, y’know, alien planet-y type thing.”

 “Ah ha!  Well, yes!”  The man’s response seemed suddenly nervous.  “I wanted to- ehm- see if Venice –hah- reminded you of …. anything? Or anyone?  In particular, I mean.”

The girl frowned and stared off into the distance.  “Why would it remind me of anything? I’ve never been to Venice.  ”

“Silly me, of course you haven’t.”  In an instant the man went from being completely discomfited to full of enthusiasm.  “Look at the architecture!  Isn’t it amazing!  It’s astonishing how marvelously it holds up until you lot start mucking with the aquifer in your own century.”

Whoever this pair was, they surely were completely mad. 

“You should not be up here, _stronzo_!” 

Ezio sighed at the all too familiar words of Venezia’s archers.  He had no taste for bloodshed this morning so he chose to leap, landing in a pile of straw.  It always struck him as odd how much straw and hay there was scattered about the city with so little livestock within its walls.  Stepping out of the pile, he moved swiftly but he had already lost the couple.  He _knew_ they were heading for Leonardo’s workshop but curiosity tickled at the base of his spine.  It was a simple matter to reachwith his mind and let the world go dark. 

Silhouettes moved around him and he would see the occasional flash of white that would indicate a passing thief or courtesan or the harsh red of a guard.  He looked for the telltale flash of gold that would reveal his target and was instead met with a blue light; so intense it was nearly white, almost painful it was so incandescent.  Shielding his eyes, he let the eagle vision slip away to reveal the source of it had been the oddly dressed man. 

 _Cazzo_! This lunatic was supposed to be an ally?


	2. Chapter 2

Desmond felt himself moving before he could figure out what was happening. All he knew was that he hadn't gotten kicked out of the memory again but his exit was just as turbulent- his gut twisting in waves and rolls. Oh- oh god. It was totally unfair to get saddled with a hangover when you didn’t get to do any of the fun stuff to deserve it. Reaching blindly for the waste basket, his arm hit somebody's thigh instead and the basket magically appeared in his lap. His body heaved and heaved until his stomach was empty and then he heaved some more, hard enough that a hand settled on his shoulder in sympathy.

Coffee and scrambled eggs tasted pretty fucking awful on the rebound.

“Here.”

He was still too dazed to offer anything more than a feeble 'thanks' as Shaun pressed a glass of water into his hands. It took a few sips before his mind was clear enough to take in what was happening, acid still burning the back of his throat.

Rebecca was elbow deep in the computerized heart of the Animus, the wall of equipment looking more than a little disturbing without its usual ethereal glow. She let off a string of curses that would have impressed a sailor as Lucy hovered over her, handing off tools like a surgical nurse as she relayed diagnostic codes to the frazzled woman.

Feeling a little more human didn't make figuring out what was going on any easier. "What the fuck happened?"

The Englishman didn't respond right away, too fascinated by Rebecca's swearing prowess. "That is an excellent question. The Animus was overheating while you were in there so they pulled you out before it or you a meltdown."

Giving himself a little shake, Desmond tried to clear the last of his mental fog. "Didn't Lucy fix the overheating problem back at Abstergo?"

Looking over her shoulder, Rebecca calmly explained what she thought of the bartender’s question which involved dealing with his scrotum with a dull, rusty knife.

The two men shared an involuntary shudder.

Shaun was surprisingly sympathetic as he looked back at Desmond, but it vanished in an awkward little jump once he focused on the other man. The hand that neither man realized was still on Desmond's shoulder was snatched away as if scalded.

It was easy to dismiss this un-Shaun-like behavior as the delusions of Desmond’s addled brain. Focus. "If the machine's fucked up it might explain the problems with the memory. The point you picked got me in but it was there was some seriously weird shit going on."

"Weird?" A more typical sneer settled on Shaun's face. "What could possibly be weirder than a five hundred year old note hard wired into your DNA that could be summed up as ‘Dear, Desmond. There's a fucking big explosion on its way. We'd be more specific but we're too busy being all dead and mysterious. Best of luck. Love, Those Who Came Before.’?"

Heh. "Maybe. How would you explain people wearing modern clothes? There was a redhead and some goofy looking guy who was a doctor. He was wearing a suit and this-" Desmond's fingers waggled over his throat, brow furrowed as he tried to extract more detail. "This dorky bowtie. And suspenders. Did they even have suspenders back then?"

"What?" The word came out like a gunshot.

The bartender was too lost in the memory to realize he was being spoken to. "What they were saying was messed up and it wasn't the translation. The guy talked about the future as if it were the past. I mean, it was still in the past but it would have been their future but the guy knew stuff. Like how Leonardo was going to paint the Mona Lisa, about Venice sinking... uh, are you all right?"

Shaun had gone pale, gaping at him like a fish. "This man. You said he was called the Doctor?"

"Well the girl called him Doctor but-"

The historian turned on his heel. "Rebecca! Darling! Love of my life!"

All eyes turned on Shaun as if he'd grown another head. He pointedly ignored their suspicion, rubbing his hands together as his face flushed in fierce glee. "How may I be of assistance? Must have the Animus up and running, right?"

____________________

The wrought iron trellis shook under his weight as Ezio pulled himself to the rooftops, taking off at a sprint as soon as he was able. Ally or no, there was no way he would let Leonardo deal with the insane couple on his own. The crowd was sure to slow them down. Another jump and he curled into a ball to roll into his landing, on his feet and running again without missing a beat.

A long-memorized pattern of roofing tile brought a faint smile to his face. He was exactly where he needed to be. It had been too long. He landed lightly in front of the familiar door and knocked in his usual way. It opened for him easily.

"Ezio! How good- mmph!"

Speaking was a waste of time when the assassin had better uses for Leonardo’s tongue. The exploration of lips and teeth could have gone on and on but Ezio knew he had to stay on task. He pulled apart with reluctance.

"Roma left me with nothing but questions that I came to share with you but there is little time for that, amore. I suspect you will soon have visitors of questionable sanity."

The artist chuckled softly. "Madness is not so terrible of a thing. I’ve often called into question my own mental state." Elegant fingers brushed back the dark cowl and curved around an ear. "How is it anything but a delusion that a man who could have his pick of sweeter fruit still chooses to return to me?”

"Does it seem so impossible?” Ezio rumbled, capturing Leonardo's hand with his own. He introduced a long digit into his mouth to gently suckle at it, bringing a delicious heat to the other man's face. The artist let out a throaty murmur of disapproval when the mouth withdrew with a slow smile. "That you would prove irresistible?”

Blue eyes fluttered as Leonardo tried to collect his wits. "Wh...what brand of lunacy do you think will arrive at my door?"

"A pair of foreigners -man and woman- that seem harmless enough." Ezio grew serious. "But looks can be deceiving."

A loud knock rattled the heavy wooden door. "Leonardo! Count Melzi? Oh wait, he hasn't met Francesco yet has he?" If the distinctive voice hadn't made it clear who was at the door, the babble surely gave it away.

"Doctor..." It was easy to hear the girl growl her warning. "Inside voice when we’re in public, remember?"

"This is my inside voice!" the man answered crossly, pounding on the door once more. "Halloo! Any geniuses at home?"

A spark of recognition made Leonardo light up from within. This delight, so obviously directed at another, tied Ezio up in knots. He would trust his eagle vision, trust the judgment of this brilliant man before him over anything but his jealousy was a poisonous thing. He covered Leonardo’s hand as it reached to permit the stranger entry, using his body as a barrier between door and artist. It was a struggle to keep the bitterness from his voice. “What do you know of this man?”

“He is an old friend and friend only, “ Leonardo answered gently, tracing the line of beads that ringed the tense line of the other man’s throat. “A good man who sometimes creates as much mischief as he solves but battles against the evil of this world with passion and principle.” A smile tugged at the older man’s lips. “Much like yourself.”

The door vibrated against the assassin’s back as the knocking resumed.

“Leave it! He’s not in!” the girl chastised. “Let’s go before those guards decide to check out the loudmouth making all the fuss!”

You could hear the man blow a solidly petulant raspberry and give an even more solid kick at the door. “We need to come back later! I haven’t seen him since I was the curly mop with impractical taste in scarves.”

The girl barked a raucous laugh. “You are not the one to be critiquing anyone else’s neck attire!”

This discussion continued in a similar vein while Leonardo patiently watched the assassin and waited for him to give way.

A long slow breath snaked its way from Ezio’s lungs and he gave up on his juvenile barricade. He leaned in to the gentle kiss that Leonardo offered in thanks, scrape of beard against beard more thrilling than it had any right to be. His throat rattled in appreciation. “One might hope for a more thorough show of gratitude later.”

‘Most certainly.” A wicked grin briefly crossed the artist’s face that would have had Ezio mauling the man if Leonardo hadn’t flung open his door. “Dottore!”

The odd doctor did a delighted little dance as the flame headed woman peered curiously over his shoulder. “Leo my friend!” The two men descended on each other and shared a thorough hug.

Ezio kept to the shadows, struggling to keep his temper in check.

Leonardo studied his visitor’s face with open fascination. “Doctor, I must say you are looking considerably… younger than last we met.”

The question didn’t seem to bother the Doctor in the slightest, eyes soaking in every detail of the workshop. “You know how it is. After a few centuries you get tired of the same old, same old. Oww!”

This little outburst was caused by a feminine elbow delivered with deadly accuracy. The pale woman had a smile a mile wide but still managed to whisper coherently through her teeth. “You didn’t bother to mention he’s gorgeous!”

The Doctor looked slightly flustered for the first time. “He.. ah, well… I believe you’re not his type.”

“So? Can still look can’t I?” she hissed, tugging on his sleeve. “In-tro-duce-us!

“Oh. Oh yes! Where are my manners? Leonardo da Vinci? Meet Amy Pond.”

Amy grabbed the artist’s hand and pumped it with vigor. “It’s a pleasure to meet you! Big! Huge fan!”

The blonde man flushed slightly and nodded, unused to such enthusiasm.

Ezio was not at all surprised to see the Doctor swing a finger at him, all without ever looking in his direction. “Aaand I’m afraid I don’t know the name of the gentleman with a fondness for pointy things.”

The girl let out a little squeak of surprise as the assassin stepped noiselessly into the light to answer. “Ezio. Ezio Auditore.”

He felt the girl’s gaze on him as she sized him up. “We should visit Italy more often,” he heard her murmur in a breezy sigh.

“So what brings you to Venice, Doctor?” Leonardo clapped a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Oh, the usual. Visiting friends. Seeing the sights. Tracking down cracks in the fabric of spacetime- that sort of thi- oh what! What! Is! That!”

He rushed forwards, bending over to examine Ezio at the waist, too fascinated with the pouch at the man’s belt to notice the ominous sound of metal slipping across metal that was close enough to his head to make a sane man wet himself.

Leonardo coughed politely, shooting a look of apology at the quietly fuming assassin. “Doctor, I would take a little more care if I were you…”

“Goodness, where did you get this?” The insane man snatched the pouch before anyone could react, slipping the Piece of Eden into his hand. “I haven’t seen one of these in a dog’s age!”

Those words were the only thing that stayed Ezio’s hand. “You have experience with the Apple?”

The Doctor seemed oblivious to the question, letting loose a merry little laugh as he tossed the Apple into the air as if it were, well, an apple. “A dog’s age. What an odd expression. Mind you, dogs live quite a bit longer where I come from.”

“Is it dangerous?” At least the girl seemed to have more sense as she darted a worried look between all three men.

“Very much so,” the artist answered grimly.

“This? Dangerous? Nah!” Ezio scrambled to catch the Apple as the Doctor casually flung it over his shoulder. “In the wrong hands, I suppose. Tell me-“

Darting across the workshop, the man took up some chalk and began sketching, hands moving faster than any of them could follow. “Did the people who gave you the Apple look anything like this?” Standing aside, the man revealed his work with smug satisfaction.

All of the doubts that plagued Ezio about the man’s veracity disappeared in a wisp of smoke. A figure appeared out of the simple lines, tall and statuesque; no specific gender but attired in much the way Minerva had been.

The assassin approached the drawing in disbelief, scarcely able to touch it. Questions tripped off his tongue. “You’ve seen them. Who are they? She had a warning, a terrible warning that she said was not meant for me. What did she mean?”

“A warning you say?” The Doctor stared off into nothingness, cogs turning inside that daft skull. “I’m not precisely sure,” he murmured. “If you’ve traveled as much as I have, you’ve come to learn that you should never trust anyone who wears a silly hat.”


	3.  Child's Play

Shaun must have lost his fucking mind.  Or maybe Abstergo had replaced him with his evil twin.  Or would this be the good twin?  Or a slightly less evil twin, in any case.  Eyes narrowed, Desmond couldn't help staring at the Englishman with kettle in hand puttering around the kitchen humming.  Hopelessly tone deaf, but still...

 

 _  
Humming  
_  
.

 

"Morning, Desmond!"  Shaun joined him at the small kitchen table, tucking into his breakfast with enthusiasm.

 

Drugs in the water supply? Possible. Desmond regarded his own coffee with a hint of suspicion.  “Mornin’,” he replied cautiously. 

 

The laden fork in Shaun’s hand paused half way to his mouth.  “Is that all you’re having?”  He jerked his chin in the direction of the untouched cup of coffee that Desmond hadn’t yet dared to try.  “You really should eat something.”

 

A brain tumor.  Shaun had a brain tumor. “Thanks, Mom. I’m not hungry,” he said automatically, trying not to flinch as Shaun stared back at this response with the scrutiny the historian normally reserved for ancient Sumerian texts. 

 

Truth be told, Desmond _wasn’t_ hungry.  He’d woken up feeling pretty shitty, the vertigo from the day before lingering a lot longer than it ever had in the past. Maybe _he_ was the one with the brain tumor. Fuck.  All he needed was another unwanted visitor taking up residence inside his head.

 

Shaun thoughtfully chewed through a mouthful of bacon. “Feeling all right, mate?” 

 

“Fine. I’m fine,” he answered too quickly, thrown off by the concern.  “What about you?  You’re awfully… “ _Disturbing_. “-chipper this morning.”

 

The scowl that suddenly graced the Englishman’s face made everything feel a whole lot more normal.   “Yeah, well it’s hard not to be excited when you stumble across the very thing you’ve been chasing after since you were twelve.”

 

This made Desmond sit up a little straighter. “That Doctor weirdo?  You knew him since you were a kid?”

 

“Knew about him?  The Doctor is every conspiracist’s wet dream.” Shaun finished off his toast with a messy bite. “He always pops up in some seriously top secret stuff.  Very hush-hush.  Nobody official has been able to pin him down with anything more than rumor or hearsay.”  He paused, taking the time to lick his fingers clean before he continued. “One name was there again and again whenever the Doctor turned up: Abstergo.  And from the way the work they’ve been doing recently they’re still hunting for him.”

 

It took a second for Desmond’s brain to catch up from this finger-licking business.  “Wait.  How could they still want him?  This guy’s been dead for a couple of centuries at least.”

 

“That’s just it.”  The ancient kitchen chair creaked noisily as Shaun edged closer.  “There’s traces of the Doctor being neck deep in almost every world changing event for hundreds - _thousands-_ of years.  I bet he’s still out there right now.  Somewhere.”   If Desmond had blinked, he would have missed the look of longing the historian shot at the window. 

 

Clearing his throat, Shaun gave himself a little shake and continued.  “Anyway, here’s the tricky bit. It's been too many different eras, too many different faces. If it was different people all calling themselves the Doctor then why does the same person show up millennia apart?” Hands moved rhythmically as Shaun spoke, increasing in tempo as he spun more and more of his theory with breakfast long forgotten.  “He’d have to be some kind of shape shifting immortal or maybe has the technology to travel through time.”   A distracting hint of tongue peeked out to moisten dry lips as the Englishman continued, inching closer to his listener inch by inch. “From that absurd Philadelphia Experiment cock-up, we know the Templars have experimented with using the Pieces of Eden to control time, yeah?”

 

Nodding without thinking, Desmond felt his attention slip from his grasp. Fuck.  Why did Shaun have to be like this?  Abrasive and sort of a dick some of the time- OK, most of the time.  But then there would be these all too brief moments where he was immersed in his passion, his thirst to share knowledge making him tantalizingly comfortable in his own skin.

 

A sigh slipped from Desmond before he could do anything about it.  Idiot.  It wasn’t like he was holding out hope for romance.  Not a single damn thing suggested Shaun would be open to getting hit on by a guy. And no- being English didn’t count. 

 

This torture, this teasing hint of easy interaction hit him hard after his confinement at Abstergo. There were lots of reasons he became a bartender.  Easy cash, flexible hours and he got to meet people.  Lots and lots of people.  Being cooped up with a dorky misanthrope who was sorta cute and would show glimmers of being a nice guy made it feel like someone had crafted a special hell just for him

 

Getting bombarded by Ezio’s virtual sloppy seconds wasn’t making the situation any easier.  A constant reminder that even a guy who’d been dead for a long time was still managing to have more sex than you.  Whoever invented the Animus probably hadn’t anticipated the effects of making the user a peeping tom – or maybe they had.  Pervert.  In any case, it was damn near impossible to tune the sensations out so he would close his eyes and let fantasy take over. 

 

One snarky bastard in particular kept popping up in those fantasies.

 

Christ, Shaun had no idea he was doing that thing with his mouth again, did he?  Another flash of tongue as the historian detailed what evidence there was of time travel through the ages and the weight of his loneliness plow through Desmond like a freight train. 

 

“With enough resources, the Assassins would have been searching for the Doctor.  But we’re hurting.  And we’re running out of time before the Templars make their move.” The historian was completely oblivious to the other man’s discomfiture, lighting up as with the same fierce grin that had appeared at the first mention of the bizarre man in the bow tie. “You found him.  You bloody found him.  This could change _everything_."

 

“Great.” Desmond smiled weakly, gut twinging at the thought of spending another long day in the Animus when he felt like shit.  “Sounds like we’ve got some work to do.”

 

\--------------

 

The sketch seemed to have sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. 

Scrunching up her face, Amy leaned in for a closer look as the Doctor put some finishing touches on the piece. “So who are they?”

 

“Were!”  The Doctor interrupted loudly without bothering to look behind him.  He added two Greek letters-a theta and a sigma- to the bottom left of the canvas with a proud flourish and whirled around to face his audience.  His glee drained from him as the expected applause did not seem to be forthcoming.

 

Amy rolled her eyes in annoyance which was pointedly ignored.  “So who _were_ they? Aliens that came to Earth looking for headwear that didn’t look like a beehive?”

 

“Pfft! Aliens!” The Doctor's laugh of derision did little to improve the girl's mood.  “Didn't that business with the Silurians teach you anything?  When it comes to sentient species, this planet has had more residents than a dormitory at a public school!”

 

“C’mon!”  The assassin looked up sharply as the Doctor rounded on him, full of questions and a smile already overflowing with smug satisfaction.  “What are they calling themselves _this_ time?  My people had a name for them but…” He shot a nervous glance at Amy.  “It’s not suitable for polite company.” 

 

 _  
The world was losing focus at its edges.  
_  
He knows. _Desmond’s amazement had little bursts of white threatening a desynchronization flashing at the corners of his vision. Holy shit, I think we just hit the jackpot._

 

Before Ezio was permitted to answer, the Doctor began pacing like the mad man he was.  “The Dominators?  No! No!  That’s already taken!  Think, Doctor, think!”  He tapped his own forehead as if trying to force the answer out.  “Let me guess!  The Amazingly Amazing Ones?”

 

Ezio couldn't take his eyes off the odd little man.  “They called themselves Those That Came Before.”

 

“That’s it?” The Doctor curled his lip in mild disgust.  “That’s a bit boring, isn’t it?  Usually when an advanced life form starts mucking about with a more primitive species they can't help but call themselves something overbearing and pretentious.”

 

Amy batted her eyelashes in all innocence. “Like the ‘Time Lords’?”

 

Crumpling into a pout that would have done a two year old proud, the Doctor gave his companion the dirtiest of dirty looks.  “Yes, well… That name is more descriptive, isn’t it?  We actually do that sort of stuff-“ His hands fluttered dismissively over his head.  “Lording about.  Through time.”

 

Leonardo sank into his chair, hands steepled in front of him in thought.  “Fascinating.  A civilization that predated mankind.  Advanced enough to create the Apple.”

 

Delight spread across the Doctor’s face.  “Precisely.”

 

“This was not all they created,” Ezio said softly. “The one who spoke to me-Minerva. She said that her kind _made_ us for a purpose.”  His knuckles blanched corpse white as his grip around the Apple tightened.  “Bred us like cattle.”

 

“We started out as slaves?” Amy asked, disbelief written plainly across her face.

 

Horror drained the color from Leonardo’s face.  “And kept in shackles by the Pieces of Eden.”  

 

A weary nod of confirmation from Ezio had them all falling into silence.

 __

_  
Desmond held his breath, trying to soak in every part of what he was hearing._

The Doctor broke the quiet with a nervous little laugh.  “Yes, well, it wasn’t for long!  This lot made the usual mistakes. Too mired in making their technology do all the work for them; too steeped in their own indolence, they forgot that it was the challenges of life that make it worth living.”  He pumped a fist in the air, full of false cheer.  “Humanity triumphed in the end!”

 

“Did it?”  Ezio sagged as the weight of the world settled over his shoulders.  “She had a warning, this Minerva.  She said the world burned and was going to do so again.”

 

“Burned?” The girl’s eyes flashed as she looked between the men around her, her words coming out all at once in her alarm. “What do you mean by ‘burned’?  Doctor!  What does he mean by ‘burned’?”

 

“Yesss,” the odd man murmured as he stepped perilously close to the assassin. “What _do_ you mean by ‘burned’?”

 

Those ancient eyes filled Ezio’s vision, any and every color all at once; the intense scrutiny threatening to peel back every fiber of his being, render him limb from limb to split open the very heart of him for this man’s inspection.

 

 _  
Involuntarily, Desmond shrank back from the gaze that seemed to be searching through the centuries. It wasn’t anything like Minerva. Different this time.  Sparkling white light popped up in his peripheral vision but through no fault of his own.  No! Not now! Need to stay!  
_

 

 “What’s this?” the Doctor sighed, lips quirking in fascination.  

 

Ezio couldn’t move, couldn’t even breath as the man cooed to him.  Or… not him. 

 

“Why hel-lo there! How did I not see you before, hmm? Don’t be shy.”

 

 _  
A gut wrenching twist and an explosion of white and…  
_

 

\-------------

 

Desmond shifted as his body spasmed, trying to empty the nothingness in his stomach out onto the floor. Footsteps and barked orders were the only thing he could process at first, vision still cloudy from the forced desynchronization.

 

“Shut her down! Shut her down!”  He’d never heard Lucy so panicked before. 

 

“Shit!”  Rebecca was at her keyboard, smashing buttons in her haste.  “Got it!”

 

The room dimmed as the pale glow that made up the heart of the Animus faded into nothingness. 

 

“I gotta go back!” the bartender said weakly as he struggled to sit up. “I was close to finding something totally-“ _insane_ “important.”

 

“No.” Lucy swooped down on to him, lips a tight, thin line as she removed the catheter in his arm.  “The Animus is acting up.”  In Lucy-speak, this translated to ‘I don’t know what the hell’s going on.’  A wisp of blonde hair slipped from the bun perched on top of her head, tarnishing her usual controlled exterior.  “We’re going to head in to town to pick up some alternate power supplies.  The wiring in this building is pretty old. Maybe it’ll help.”  She softened as she saw him wobble with a sudden bout of vertigo.  “Do you need anything?”

 

“I’ll be fine.”  My brain tumor and I.  He waved her off.  “Good luck.”

 

Car keys were snatched from Lucy’s desk and the two women were off, gone for who knows how long.  The probably didn’t carry Animus replacement parts at Best Buy. 

 

“Feeling sick again?”  The question came from the shadows; a Shaun-shaped outline was leaning against the wall by one shoulder, arms firmly crossed across his chest in disapproval.

 

“You were right about this Doctor guy. Christ, did you see any of that memory?” Desmond countered, not wanting to think about how he felt. “Help me get back in there. You know how important this is.”

 

“No. Something keeps pushing the Animus to its limits. We should wait for the others.” Shaun emerged from the darkness, looking none too pleased.  “It’s too risky; for the machine and for… for you-“

 

“Since when do you care about me?”

 

The Englishman exploded. “Since you started looking like complete crap, you imbecile! We have no idea what’s causing this!” He shoved his glasses back to their usual perch on the bridge of his nose.    “What if it harms you?”

 

“I know you won’t let that happen,” Desmond said with a soft smile. “It’d be a huge pain in the ass for you to break in Subject Eighteen.”

 

After a full sixty seconds of glare, Shaun reluctantly began booting up the Animus.

\--------------

 

The paralysis released Ezio from its grip.  “Enough! I am no cipher!”  He jabbed a finger at the Doctor’s chest, meeting a surprising amount of resistance.  “I am my own man! You will not speak to me as if I am of no consequence!”

 

Those green-hazel-everything-all-at-once eyes looked sideways at the assassin.  “Someone’s done that to you before, have they?”  The strange man had the decency to look abashed.  “My apologies.  That was quite rude of me.”  A sudden burst of inspiration had the Doctor dashing to the exit. “C’mon Pond!” 

 

Ezio sagged a little, eager to have this disruptive dottore gone.  The comforting hand that Leonardo set at his elbow warmed him to the core.

 

“What?” the redheaded girl was aghast, openly ogling this show of tenderness.  “We’re going?  Right now?  We are _so_ not going!” 

 

“Don’t worry! We’ve got a bit of a puzzler here and I need to fetch something from my… ship.  We’ll be back.” The Doctor was oblivious, throwing open the front door with a flourish. “Gentlemen!  Arrivederci!”  He gave them a grand salute and vanished.

 

“Leonardo?” Amy took the hem of her skirt in hand and attempted a little curtsey. “Pleasure to meet you. Ezio?”  She gave the assassin an awkward punch to the shoulder.  “Really a pleasure meeting you!”

 

“Amelia Pond!”  The summoning bellow resonated clearly from outside the workshop.

 

She backed out slowly, bumping into things with her eyes unable to drift away from the scene of these two men together. “Well, I’ll… yes, we’ll be going.  Now.  Going now!  But we’ll be back! Bye!”

 

Rising from his chair as soon as the door firmly sealed them off from the outside world, Leonardo cupped the assassin’s face in his hands. “Mi dispiace molto, caro. I had no idea today’s events would unfold as they did.  Whatever I can do to make amends, I will do.”

 

 _  
Desmond squirmed.  Shit, I should have known with these two… Keeping himself distanced from their passion was enough of a challenge with how often these two went at it, but he was already off his game.  
_

 

“You’ve done nothing wrong, gioia mia.  And in truth, neither did this Doctor,” Ezio admitted wearily.  “I had thought age had given me a thicker skin but it seems the opposite is true.”

 

“Ah Ezio, the burden you carry would have broken a normal man long ago,” the artist murmured, brushing full lips with his own.

 

A rich wordless rumble came from deep from within the assassin’s chest.  “Dio mio, I’ve missed this. Say it again.”

 

“That you carry a burden?” Leonardo asked, teeth rasping against what he could reach of rough hewn beard.  “Or that you are an extraordinary man?”

 

Leaning in, Ezio claimed the spot just under the older man’s ear with a lick. “Neither.”  A bold hand stroked the artist firmly through his clothing.

 

“Was it that I am sorry?” Laughter filled Leonardo’s words, only too happy to play this game. “Or that I would make amends?”

 

“No.”  Sinking to his knees, the younger man took great care to unwrap the thickening cock before him.  “And no.”

 

Leonardo leaned back against his desk, no longer able to stand as an eager tongue laved the length of him.  “Caro,” he said simply.

 

A hum of approval vibrated up his shaft. “Yes.”

 

“Tesoro mio.”  Artist hands drifted to card through soft brown hair that framed a handsome face.

 

Ezio blew a warm puff of air against the sac dusted by light blonde hair, relishing the flush that came to the other man’s thighs.  “Again.” 

 

Pupils dilated, the artist panted out a harsh “Ti amo, tesoro mio” and it signaled the torture was enough.

 

With a teasing taste of the pearl that had formed just for him, the younger man wrapped his lips around the straining cock.  Tender suckling of the head had Leonardo thrusting against him. The gasp of “Io sono tuo! Tu sei mio!” had Ezio smiling around the gift he held in his mouth.

 

It had been too long since last they’d done this.  He worked Leonardo hard.  Bodies moved in concert to wring a beautiful cry from them both.  Leonardo poured himself into the man worshiping his cock, pulse after pulse and-

 

 _  
A familiar dazzle of white and Desmond felt that terrible lurch dragging him back.  
_

 _  
\------  
_

 

God damn it. 

 

Returning to the real world with the urge to puke and a raging boner was about as awesome as it sounded.

 

“Are you all right?” Shaun was hovering over him, full of worry.  “Sorry if something big was happening.  I couldn’t keep tabs on what was going on and watch the medical monitors.  Your blood pressure and heart rate were off the charts so I aborted the memory.”

 

The tangle of sickness and arousal made it hard for Desmond to speak. “Good. Good plan.” 

 

Feeling along Desmond’s arm, Shaun tried to remove the catheter tethering the man in the chair.  This simple touch had Desmond flinching, surge of desire creating the urge to toss the Englishman on his ass and suck him off until they both found out just how many dead languages Shaun could swear in.

 

“Fuck!  Sorry, mate!” the historian stammered, unhelpfully laying a maternal hand on Desmond’s flushed forehead. 

 

“No, it’s fine.”  Desmond wasn’t sure if standing up was going to help since his dick was doing pretty well on that front all by itself.  He lay curled in the chair, trying to shield himself.  Discretion was the better part of hiding your hard-on, or however that saying went.  “I just need a minute.”

 

Shaun pulled up a chair and did his damnedest to hide his nervousness.


	4. Child's play Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leonardo da Vinci receives a visit from an old friend. This chapter rated NC 17 to be safe

Jesus  
,  
he had to eat something.  Actually consuming food was the last thing on his mind but Desmond hadn’t eaten since yesterday and that couldn’t be good, could it?

Starve a cold, feed a brain tumor.

Rebecca and Lucy hadn’t returned from Animus R’ Us or wherever the fuck they were, so getting more information about this whole Doctor thing had come to a standstill.  Maybe a snack would get him feeling better. He yanked open the refrigerator to find anything that might remotely be appealing with zero appetite.

Something tickled the back of his neck as he rummaged through the shelves. 

Disappointingly the fridge was chock full of Rebecca’s Mountain Dew, half a carton of orange juice and the remains of one pathetic looking sandwich. 

God damn it. 

He cursed at his foul mood, brought on by the whopping great headache he’d developed on top of the dizziness that persisted from that morning.  At least it had killed the boner he’d been left with by Ezio, the horny bastard.  The bleeding effect of the Animus was supposed to help him acquire his ancestor’s skills as an assassin and he was fairly sure  
Ezio's sexual talents  
weren’t intended to be part of the curriculum.

Speaking of  
sex  
, Desmond glanced over his shoulder in trepidation.

Busy at the Animus was Shaun, chewing up his lip in frustration as he slowly went through the  
recording

that held  
most the recent memory involving the Doctor.  Had he gotten to the part where it got all blowjob-y yet?  God.  The embarrassment factor of knowing what the Englishman  
was  
about to see was like having your mom find your porn stash multiplied by a factor of about eleventy billion.  He supposed he could say something, but what?  Don’t watch the last twenty minutes unless you want to see a whole lot of Italian sausage?  Desmond grabbed what was left of the sandwich and the orange juice and headed in Shaun’s direction, not quite sure what he was going to say.  

As he turned, something warm and wet poked him in the belly button.   
Was... was that a tongue?

He spun around. 

There was nothing.  He was alone.

What the fuck was that?

The carton almost fell from his grip as what was most definitely a pair of hands massaged his ass. 

A hopeful look at Shaun’s back before disappointment set in.  Nope.  The guy was at his computer, sitting all oddly stiff and awkward in his chair but there none the less. 

What had he been expecting? Of course there was no way those would be the hands in question.  His luck had already made its way down the shitter.

Desmond nearly jumped a foot in the air when an invisible mouth began nibbling on his ear lobe. He felt a breathy moan against his ear.

Aww, crap.  He’d had front row seats enough times to recognize Leonardo. It colored everything he knew about the Renaissance man.  Whenever Desmond saw the Mona Lisa he could only think about how the artist had a thing for leaving bite marks.  Art history was never going to be the same.

Well, this was just peachy keen. It wasn’t often the bleeding effect forced him into a memory without the help of the Animus, but did it have to keep picking times when his ancestors were about to get some?

Desmond took a deep breath.  These were just little flashes of the past, not more than a few seconds.  The danger was if they lasted longer, Lucy had said. She had kept reassuring him that he wasn’t spending anywhere near as much time in the Animus as Subject Sixteen had been forced to so he should be fine. These little blips didn't mean he was about to go bonkers and paint the walls in his own blood, right?  No, this was normal.

With the vertigo and the headaches. 

Totally. Normal. 

Around him the world flashed to shades of grey and  
there he  
was  
, seeing an outline of a bed with a long, lean man spreading himself out upon it.  Color and details began to fill in and it became more obvious it was a wanton Leonardo, wearing only a look filled with such love it made Desmond’s heart ache.

That’s not for you.  None of that is for you.

Desmond struggled to set his pathetic meal on the kitchen counter before the memory made a mess of things.

"Miles!" 

Shaun sounded pissed. This was a small comfort at least.  Desmond wrapped himself in the normalcy of it as if the angry man were a little cranky blanket, hoping to keep himself grounded in the present.

The Englishman spun him around by the shoulder, looking an impressive shade of scarlet.  "Thought you’d have a bit of a laugh at my expense, did you?”

"Wh..what?" Desmond struggled to make sense of the words.  The nice little flush on the other man's cheeks was taking up what little concentration he had left.

"You know bloody well what I'm talking about!"

A ghost of a hand wrapped around his dick. “Ah!  Uh, sure.” 

“A little warning would have been nice!  ‘Hey, Shaun- watch out for that last bit where my ancestor gets to play ‘smoke the cigar’ with one of the greatest minds in history!’”

“Not like it’s the first time,” Desmond murmured.  He had to bite down on his tongue as he felt his dick slowly making its way somewhere warm, deliciously warm and wonderfully tight.   Phantom legs settled around his hips. 

“Now I won’t be able to look at the Vitruvian Man without thinking of Leonardo’s willy!” Shaun blinked wildly as his brain caught up with his tongue. “What do you mean- it’s not the first time?”

Maybe this was supposed to be a new assassination technique he was supposed to learn: death by embarrassment.

“They fuck.” The words forced their way out of Desmond who was trying not to visibly thrust in time with his enthusiastic ancestor. “Like rabbits.”

“That’s not possible! I… I would have known!” The Englishman went even redder than before. “Even if I don’t always sit in the sessions when  you do them, I still go through each video after Rebecca-“  He froze, near apoplectic. “Rebecca, you little cow!”

“Okay.” Both Ezio and Desmond were close to the breaking point. “I think I need to lie down.”

Shaun’s rage vanished, replaced with concern. “Do you need me to help you with anything?”

Would bending you over the couch and fucking you stupid be okay?  ‘Cause that would be nice.

“No, I’m good.” Fingernails raked down his back.  He wondered idly if it would leave a mark. “Gah- gotta go.”

Desmond hastily retreated to his bedroom where the memory finally overwhelmed him before he could even remove his sneakers.

\--------------

“So let me get this straight,” Amy asked, scrambling to keep up with the Doctor. Her high heeled boots were not meant for Florence’s cobblestone streets.  “You saw someone _inside_ Ezio?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said simply, too distracted by the gadget he’d retrieved from the TARDIS.

“Soul sucking parasite?” She cursed her fashionable taste as she narrowly avoided twisting her ankle for the hundredth time.

“No.”  The device made a sad little noise which prompted the Doctor to deliver a sharp smack across the top, which got the device squealing again.

“Alien implantation.”  Amy snapped her fingers at sudden inspiration. “In preparation for invasion!”

“Nope!” 

“Ooo, I know!  Demonic possession by a spirit of the underworld named Phillip!”

“Nuh-uh.” Somehow the Doctor unerringly navigated them back to the bottega without once looking up to see where he was going.

She raised a pointed eyebrow, knowing exactly how to extract a response. “Maybe there wasn’t anything and you imagined it all.”

The Doctor finally glanced up from the device, looking terribly offended.  “Now you’re just being silly.”  He rapped a knuckle against the door to Leonardo’s studio and waited.  “What I saw was more of a temporal stowaway. It uses a rudimentary form of time travel, probably using genetic memory as a tether to keep the individual from getting lost in the space-time vortex. More useful for eaves dropping than anything else.” 

“Someone listening in from the future?” she asked.  “Focusing on Ezio?”

“Essentially, yes.  Not really traveling so very limited in the grand scheme of things unless you have a burning desire to find out where Great Grandmother Hortense hid her stamp collection. Usually these sorts of flirtations with time travel aren’t dangerous like a pebble that barely causes a ripple when dropped into the ocean.” The Doctor flipped back his coat sleeve to consult his bare wrist for the time.  “But this business about the world burning has me concerned _just_ a smidgeon.  This signature and the warning must be related in some way.  Too much of a coincidence and you know how I feel about coincidences.”

 With an impatient sigh, he gave a quick look around for guards before forcing the door open.

“Manners!” Amy chastised but followed along behind anyway.

The Doctor closed the door soundlessly behind them, looking slightly guilty.  “I’m not normally one to break and enter-“ He held up a finger in warning which cut off Amy’s laugh of derision before it began. “But this is important.  I need to know more about Ezio.  He’s the key but a very stabby key by the looks of it and I would like to handle this with a minimum of bloodshed.” 

He consulted his device once more which promptly fell silent.

Amy hid her laugh behind her hand. “And that thingamabobber is supposed to help?”

“It’s sort of a bloodhound.  Sniffs out the temporal signature of Ezio’s guest. Lead us right to wherever or whenever he, she and/or it may be.”  The Doctor gave the device a little shake, looking like he had just lost a dear friend. “Or is supposed to anyway.” 

He shrugged, haphazardly shoving the thing into his pocket.  “C’mon, Pond.  Let’s start with Master da Vinci.  I’d like to find out how well he knows this Auditore chap.  We have to bring Ezio with us on the TARDIS to accurately locate his guest and I’m not so sure that he’ll willingly come aboard.”

She followed with some trepidation. “Doctor, do you think it’s wise to go snooping-“

“Snooping?  _Snooping_?  This is not _snooping_!” he said, storming off down a corridor in a huff.   Amy almost plowed into him as he pulled up short.  “All right! It’s snooping,” he conceded.  “But I have my reasons!”

There were several rooms to choose from, all behind closed doors.  The Doctor pressed his ear to one, face scrunched up as if this would somehow help him hear better.  He knocked softly and waited a brief moment.  The lack of response had him flinging the door open to reveal a supply of canvas and too many brushes to count.

“This may not be the best method of…” Amy started before the Doctor shushed her violently.

“Not now Pond!” he whispered, making his way to another door.  He had his ear firmly shoved up against it when the door swung inward and the device in his pocket began singing like a demented songbird.

 “Can I help you?” 

Ezio’s muscular form almost filled the doorway, wearing little beyond a thin bed sheet slung low around his hips.  The light from inside the bedroom highlighted the myriad of fine scars that crisscrossed his skin. 

The hoot of appreciation died in Amy’s throat when she saw the man looked less than pleased.

“Yes! Yes! Hello! Yes!” The Doctor frantically tried to silence the shrieking device. It trilled one last time and died.  He looked up guiltily. “We were looking for Leonardo.”

The Italian rested his elbow against the door jamb to better glance back behind him into the bedroom’s darkened recesses. He returned his attention to the two interlopers wearing a subtle but distinctly self-satisfied smirk.  “He’s not able to speak with you at the moment.”

“I ah, ha! Yes, well!”  The Doctor shielded his eyes, tips of his ears flushing bright pink. “I have something I’d like to discuss. With both of you.  When you’re less… indisposed.”

A curt nod from the man as he rumbled “Of course.” 

The door slammed shut and a bolt was thrown home for good measure.

Amy bit the inside of her cheek in amusement.  “I’d say it looks like Leonardo knows Ezio rather well …”

“Quiet, you!”   

She received a not-so-gentle shove that sent her back the way they came.

\---------

Ezio slotted the bolt and returned to bed, discarding the sheet at his waist as well as any desire for modesty.  Easing himself next to the loose limbed man sprawled out before him, the assassin placed a gentle kiss between the other man’s shoulder blades.  “Time to rise, amore. There’s work to be done.”

The answer was a wordless grumble. 

Finally, Ezio let himself smile openly. “Lazy bones.”  He trailed a feather light hand down the sleeping man’s spine.  The shiver this caused was most pleasant. 

One blue eye finally opened. “You have ruined me, you wretched man.” Leonardo twisted in place to face the younger man above him. “How am I to function today when I can barely muster a coherent thought?”

Ezio delivered a playful bite to pale skin. “I can provide some incentive.”  

The artist arched into it, threading his fingers through long brown hair to keep the man’s attention where it was. “This –ah!- is hardly giving me motivation to leave this bed.”

“Think of this-“ Full lips captured the blonde man’s nipple for a moment. “As a hint of future services.”

Leonardo let out a mock sigh.  “Then by all means, let us rise.”

They made a game of dressing, teasing and caressing as they went.  Once they were fit for company, they joined the Doctor and his companion in the drawing room.

The Doctor pounced on them as soon as he was able.  “Ezio, can you tell me more about the warning you received from Minerva?”

“There is little to tell,” he answered, stroking his beard in contemplation.  “Aside from what I already told you it made little sense.  She said it was not meant for me but for one named Desmond.”

A fierce little glow lit up in the Doctor’s eyes as he and his companion shared a knowing look.  He was bouncing on the balls of his feet as he asked, “How would the two of you like to go on a little trip?”

The dramatic change of topic did little to interfere with Leonardo’s curiosity.  “On your ship?” the artist asked.  “You promised me once, when you looked… different-”

“Yes, I did, didn’t I?”  The odd man spread his arms out wide.  “So what do you both say?  Just a quick little spin?”

Ezio heard the red headed girl clear her throat softly.  Her lips barely moved but his her words still fell within the range of his hearing.  “Doctor, I thought you said you just needed Ez-“

Letting loose a quick ‘shh!’ the Doctor was again all smiles.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”  Leonardo answered breathlessly.  He turned to Ezio. “What say you?”

His instincts were in turmoil.  Ezio knew the artist trusted the Doctor, his own eagle vision had shown the stranger to be an ally.  But the very heart of him cried out to not turn his back on the man. 

Still, the hopeful look on Leonardo’s face- so full of eagerness- was something he could never deny.

Ezio settled his shoulders, trying to look at ease.  “When do we depart?”

\----------------

The big blue box lay in an alleyway mostly ignored, not far from where the assassin had first spotted the disruptive strangers.

“ _This_ is your ship?”  Ezio failed utterly at masking his disdain.  The words scrawled on the outside were in English but he could make them out well enough. ‘Police Call Box’.  What an odd name.

“Yes!” the Doctor said proudly.  “A little worn on the outside, but it’s on the inside where the good stuff awaits!”  He unlocked the door and threw it open with a flourish.  “After you!”

Amy strolled in without a backwards glance.  Eyes wide, trying to capture every detail, Leonardo followed into the seemingly tiny cabinet.

Ezio regarded this _dottore_ with suspicion.  “What game is this?”

“No game,” the Doctor answered, smile slipping slightly. “I’m harmless. Really.”

Neither backed down from the other’s scrutiny.

Hearing Leonardo’s cry of “Dio mio!”, Ezio could no longer wait.  He strode through the door, eyes taking a little longer than usual to adjust to the reddish glow.

And what he saw made his breath catch in his throat.  The space inside the cabinet was enormous, just the first room alone larger than Leonardo’s studio with a myriad of staircases and doors suggesting much more lay hidden beyond.

 _  
Desmond tossed and turned in his dreamless dream, not sure what to believe. The whole thing was getting crazier and crazier.  Or maybe he was the one going crazy.  
_

Leonardo was already circling the center console in fascination.  “The exterior and the interior!” he said, reaching out to touch a brass knob. “They are on a different plane of existence, yes?  It must be so for the spaces to overlap. And the vessel travels within this alternate plane.”

“Ooo, I just _knew_ you’d get it!” the Doctor crowed, dashing up to the console in delight.  He danced around the controls, flipping and twisting all manner of knobs and dials.  “A man well before your time, Leonardo!”

“It’s magnificent!”  The smile on the artist’s face was worth all of Ezio’s worry.

“She is nice, isn’t she?” the Doctor asked coyly, stroking the console with affection. “Amy?  Why don’t you find Leonardo pen and paper?”

“Molto grazie!”

Ezio kept to the periphery to assess the space for potential exits and was irritated to find nothing useful.  He could feel the Doctor’s eyes on him when the man thought he wasn’t looking.

Once the artist and the girl were suitably distracted, the assassin approached the console.

And the Doctor.

“Why are you doing this?” Ezio asked simply.

A dial began spinning out of control and the Doctor danced on one foot to kick at it which seemed to remedy the problem. “That’s not usually the first question I get from new passengers.”

“I leave the ‘how’s’ to smarter men.  It is your motivation that is of greater concern.”

The strange man shot a measured glance at the assassin. “You don’t trust me.”

“I suspect the feeling is mutual.”

The Doctor paused, his gaze intent enough to peel through layers of armor.  “I want to stop the world from burning.”

“As do I.”

“Yes, but our methods are far different I suspect,” murmured the Doctor.  “I’m not one for violence and it’s not something I abide in others.”

“Really?” Ezio laughed, dry and humorless.  “You play the fool, but you dodge and deflect with the skill of an assassin.  You call Leonardo friend yet you use him as bait to ensure I follow.”  He licked at the decades old scar on his lip. “I know your kind. There’s blood on you whether by your own hand or the hand of another.” 

He savored the hit as the Doctor blanched at this.  He continued to press his advantage. “We are not so different, you and I.  We use the tools we are given to do what we think is right.  No more. No less.”

There was a sad smile from the Doctor. “I can see why he enjoys your company.”

Ezio looked to the unsuspecting ‘he’ in question, who was busy coaxing a laugh from Amy with some small joke as she watched the blonde man quickly capture the design of the console on paper. “He won’t be hurt?”

The Doctor followed the other man’s glance to watch Amy punching the artist in the shoulder and dissolving in a fit of giggles.  “No. He’ll be safe,” he said with no small amount of fondness. “He is destined for great things.”

“This I know,” Ezio said with affection. “And the girl?  How does she fit into all of this?”

Neither man could take their eyes off the pair; the girl making faces for the man as he tried to sketch her mugging through their laughter.

“I suppose she’s a little like Leonardo,” the Doctor murmured distantly, more to himself. “Sometimes we need someone close to us to remind us what’s important.”

The mood shattered as the Doctor began a frenzy of activity once more. “And we’re off!” he joyfully declared as if nothing of import had passed between them.  One pull of a lever and the whole room began shaking, speaking with a massive groan.  The glass tubes in the center column began their movement as lights flickered across the surface.

The transit seemed to take but a minute before all the noise and motion stopped.  “Here we are!”  The Doctor flicked on something that was a window but was not a window, revealing what was looked to be the exterior of the craft.

 _  
Desmond felt his heart hammering against his chest.  That… that was the kitchen. With the carton of orange juice and that sad, sad sandwich he’d forgotten all about still waiting for him on the counter.  He didn’t even get a chance to get a better look before there was a flash and he was  
_

\----------------

Back in his room.

Tangled in sweaty sheets, Desmond struggled to rise from his bed like a man drowning.  He stumbled to the doorway, feeling the ground move underneath him like a carnival fun ride.

“They’re here!” he yelled hoarsely, using the wall as a crutch to get down the hall. 

Shaun appeared out of nowhere.  “What’s the matter with you, Miles?  Who’s here?”

Desmond staggered drunkenly to the kitchen and leaned heavily against the jamb.  He lifted a quaking arm to point at the big blue box occupying most of the little space.  “Them.”

“Good God!” Shaun stood at his side, gaping like a fish. “It’s… it’s-“

The door eased open on the blue box and suddenly Desmond was in a hurricane.

He was himself: lost and sick, his head pounding, hoodie making him too goddamned hot all of a sudden, no air in a room that had somehow just filled with people coming out of a cabinet or some shit like it was an elevator.

At the same time he was someone else. Ezio- leading the way from the machine of the _Dottore_ into an unfamiliar world, hidden blades at the ready, to find himself frozen to the spot by the sight of two strangers, one of whom was wearing his face.

The two perspectives battled each other for space in Desmond’s mind. 

Was this how Sixteen felt? His consciousness being pulled apart like taffy, identity fragmenting into a million pieces as it was tugged in too many directions all at once.

Creak of well worn leather as he stepped towards himself.  Dio mio, did he always look like that?  Pale and sweaty and kind of gross. 

Grip of panic at the thought that this might be the last vestiges of his sanity slipping through his fingers.

The pressure surged in his head until it felt like he would explode.  His knees buckled and the ground rushed up to meet him.

Someone caught him before his head could crack against the floor.  Oh, hey Shaun. Thanks for the save. 

From Ezio, he could see Shaun turning increasingly frantic as he cradled a limp form in his arms. “Desmond!”

Another jolt of disorientation as he simultaneously saw and felt Ezio go through the act of crouching next to him.  There was a bizarre sort of stereo- in his ear, inside his head – of that sweet honey of a voice breathlessly managing to fill one word with a thousand questions: “Desmond?”

A great thunderclap of hands coming together made them look up.  Two images began to overlap, almost merging into one. The Doctor standing over him at slightly different angles, looking back and forth between the two men with hands clasped together tightly to his chest as if he’d just been given a most delightful present.

The pleasured smile that blossomed on the Doctor’s face was brilliant enough to light up the night sky.  “Desmond!”

 


	5. Child's play

The trembling started small but Shaun could feel the body in his arms begin to shiver. What the hell was going on? The flu? Poisoned? It would be just like the selfish idiot to fall ill right when standing in their kitchen was the most _fucking SPECTACULAR THING_ _ **IN THE UNIVERSE**._

The barely conscious man was radiating a frightening amount of heat even through his clothes. Shaun unzipped the hoodie and nearly smacked himself in the face with an arm as he wrestled it out of one sleeve, trying to get layers off of the frame burning up in his hands. “Desmond! Desmond, talk to me, you bastard!”

Desmond’s stare was a little distant, barely keeping focus but he was in there, struggling to keep eye contact. Lips moved but no sound came out.

Fuck.

Just next to them, the very real, very solid, very impossibly _here_ Ezio Auditore was pushing back his hood, still unable to take his eyes off the man draped across Shaun’s lap. Reviewing memories hardly did the man justice: the resemblance was astonishing.

A cold prickling started on the back of Shaun's neck as Desmond brought up his hand in a faint mimicry of the motion of his ancestor, reaching for a hood where there was none before the hand flopped uselessly to one side.

Realization was ice water in his veins. Sixteen had been bad but hadn't been nearly as bad before he...

Shaun let out a growl, battling to free the man from the rest of his hoodie, furious at himself for this being the only thing he could think to do. "I will fucking kill you if you die on me, Miles." Maybe get him to hospital or find a… a…

“You!” It came out as more of a bark, startling the man in the bow tie enough that he checked over his shoulder to be sure that there wasn't someone behind him that was the intended target of all that ire.

“Please help him.” Shaun’s angry veneer crumbled in one hard swallow, worry coming off of him in waves. "You have to.” He sounded small to his own ears once his attention turned back to the ashen face in his hands but he didn't care. “You’re the Doctor.”

A gentle hand settled on his shoulder. "So I am.”

Kneeling, the Doctor pored over Desmond with sharp eyed scrutiny. A little noise of shock and the seemingly young face turned centuries old. "Oh you poor boy," murmured this ancient being. He reached for a sweaty forehead and tiny arcs of energy sparked up to his fingertips.

“Oof.” The Doctor pulled back his hand with a shake. “Artron poisoning. Too much unfiltered exposure to the time vortex. What kind of shields does he use?" He jerked his head at Ezio. "You know, when he’s off visiting family?”

“Wh..what?” Shaun shot a guilty look at the assassin who was listening to every word. “Do you mean the Animus? I’ve no clue how it actually works.” He licked his lips with a nervous flick of his tongue. “I’m just a historian. I can barely turn the thing on.”

“Never mind,” the Doctor boomed, rising to his feet. “We can worry about that later. Right now let’s get him into the TARDIS. The old girl has a few tricks up her sleeve for this sort of thing. Especially since the last time."

With a grimace , Shaun hefted Desmond into the air. Good god bugger was heavier than he looked. Shifting the tense weight in his arms made him stagger. Ezio made to help but the Englishman fought to right himself on his own. "No. I've got him."

It was at the TARDIS doorway that Shaun felt his heart jump into his throat. Would this work? How was this supposed to help? It was a leap of faith of sorts, he supposed. With exquisite care he navigated through the narrow entry, the mind bending nature of what he was walking into totally lost on him as his attention was taken up elsewhere.

The very instant they crossed the threshold, Desmond was a marionette with its strings cut. There was a moment of panic and this suddenly dead weight almost slipped from Shaun's grasp but Ezio was there to catch them both. Shaun held on tighter, relieved to feel the trembling cease and a full, deep breath against him.

"Ah! Excellent." The Doctor pat the top of a chaise longue that sat in a corner of the impossible room. "Right here if you don't mind. The perfect place for a bit of a kip."

Desmond was laid out with care, relief palpably replacing the exhaustion on his sleeping face.

Shaun couldn't stop hovering. "So?" he asked, wringing his hands. "Is that it?"

"For now," the Doctor said softly. "He needs time." He put a guiding hand on Shaun's elbow. "Come. Show me this machine of yours."

The hesitation didn't come as a surprise to anyone.

"Don't worry." The Doctor was full of sympathy, directing Shaun's attention to the assassin still at Desmond's side. "I think he'll be well looked after."

Reluctance dissipated and Shaun led the way out of the TARDIS.  
_________

Leonardo didn't realize how engrossed he'd become with helping the Doctor examine the chair machine. An intriguing bit of business this Animus. The mechanism was complex yes, but beautiful in its own right, but its sleek elegance seemed out of place compared to what he could see of this modern world. Five hundred years. Invention was a marvelous thing but was this truly enough time for mankind to learn to visit their ancestors as the Doctor had hinted?

The urge to speak with Ezio was overwhelming. But where _was_ Ezio?

He cursed himself for losing himself so thoroughly in his curiosity. This adventure had an extra gut-wrenching layer of complexity for the assassin. Clearly the man Desmond was related in some way. How many generations had to have passed between them?

It was obvious now where the assassin would be. Leonardo entered the TARDIS, finding Ezio still watching over his charge. Straddling a chair he'd found, Ezio rested his arms across the back, supporting his head as if its weight was too much for him. He could have been a sentinel made of stone if not betrayed by the rise and fall of his breathing.

Leonardo let his footsteps ring out as he walked over metal and glass. "He favors you strongly," he said teasingly, hoping to break the man's somber mood.

There was no answer; not even a twitch of acknowledgment.

He tried again. "Beyond the mere physical as well, I'd say. He seems to have your gift for inspiring deep feelings in others by the looks of it."

Nothing.

Oh dear.

"Ezio?" He reached out hesitantly, brushing his fingers along the man's shoulder.

The touch set off a heavy sigh from the assassin; the statue springing to life.

“When I was young and foolish,” Ezio began, rich bass coming from deep in his chest. “I never stopped to think what the future would hold. Life was a beautiful, bountiful thing.”

Stilling his hand, Leonardo remained silent, not wanting to distract the man from his catharsis.

“Then betrayal left my family in tatters. There was still only the now but it was filled only with blood and vengeance.” Ezio closed his eyes for a moment as the memories washed over him. “After that, I realized that it was the struggle against the Templars that was to consume what life was left in me.”

He straightened in his chair, focusing again on Desmond. “There were... so many things I thought lost to me. Like safety. And peace. My sister would marry into a new family, take a name with no target on its back. I accepted there would be nothing so easy for me. Eventually there would be a time where I would no longer be fast enough or strong enough and the Auditore legacy would come to a violent end.”

Ezio ran a hand along the chaise longue just next to the sleeping figure, not daring to touch for fear of disturbing the man with ghosts of the past. “It was never my death that troubled me. More that after all this sacrifice it would all be for nothing. But just seeing he exists changes so much. Knowing that long after my bones turn to dust...”

His sob pierced the air, shattering it into a million pieces.

“The Auditore are not dead. We are still here.”

Leonardo stood strong, hugging the assassin to him to share in his tears.  
\-------------------

Amy peered over the Doctor's shoulder, pretending she could make heads or tails of what he was looking at. “So Desmond got sick from this thing?”

“Not the machine itself per se,” he said, reaching into the heart of the Animus and pulling out a handful of cables. “This is what helps him be a nosy parker. And apparently he was expected if Miss Bee Hive Bonnet knew to implant a memory in Ezio just to say 'Hello'.” He slammed his hand against the metal casing and shot a glare at Shaun. “Where are the blasted _shields_ on this thing?”

Shaun eyed the pieces of machinery littering the floor with trepidation. “I told you. This is everything.”

The Doctor rose from the floor, dusting off his hands in disgust. “Unbelievable! You've been sending your friend through the vortex to pester his ancestors with no shielding whatsoever? That's like dropping him into a volcano with a snorkel and some swim fins!”

“The vortex?” Shaun asked in a daze. “I thought the Animus worked by reading out ancestral memories coded into your DNA?”

“Well, certainly there's _some_ basic information in there! That's just a stepping stone!” the Doctor snapped as if this should have been obvious. “Even butterflies use what's available to them. How else would they know how to find their summer home thousands of miles away? No, no, no! Think about what you've seen! You honestly believe that after over a half a millennium of evolution and plain old genetic drift that Desmond would keep the memory of how Ezio styled his hair on a certain day hard wired into his DNA?” He stepped closer to the Englishman, finger pointing in accusation. “Your Animus punches a peephole into the raw fabric of the universe and you've been busy shoving people through it.”

There was jangle and a crash as the main door to the warehouse swung open.

“Hey guys! We're back!” Rebecca could barely see over her armful of supplies and more Mountain Dew. “Did you missss...” Everything in her arms hit the floor in a noisy crash. “ _What the **fuck** have you done to Baby_?” She was nearly in tears as she sprinted to protect the innards of the Animus strewn all over the floor.

“Don't worry, I can explain-” Shaun tried to intervene before blood was shed, most particularly his own.

There was a click of a gun being cocked. “You'd better start explaining.” The bag of groceries in one hand did little to put a dent in Lucy's cool exterior as she leveled her 9mm in the direction of the Doctor and his companion.

“What is it with this species and firearms?” the Doctor shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. He strolled up to the blonde, taking the gun from her hand to her blinking surprise. “No guns!” He slipped the safety on with practiced ease and tossed the handgun to Amy who held it at arm's length as if it were a rotting fish.

Shaun got himself bodily between them, knowing full well that the blonde didn't need weapons to be a threat. “Lucy! Meet the Doctor. You know... as in, ahh, the Doctor,” he finished lamely.

“ _The_ Doctor,” the madman confirmed behind him with a vigorous nod.

The woman's eyes went wide. “From what Shaun tells me, the Templars have been trying to get their hands on you for a long time!”

“Really?” the Doctor asked proudly. “I'll add them to the list.”

Shaun cleared his throat. “Before I let you get all chummy, there are some other guests I need to mention-”

He was just a second too late.

“Ohmygod!” Lucy was aghast and damn near hyperventilating as she pointed at the white hooded figure striding in from the kitchen. “Is that... Ezio! Here! Now! Oh my god!”

Leonardo joined Ezio at his side, both watching the woman's reaction with bemusement. “It seems the Auditore are far from forgotten, caro,” he murmured softly.


	6.   Child's Play Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For those more familiar with DW, Assassin's Creed 2 features encryption that is more of a puzzle than the encryption as we think of it for computer passwords so please don't kill me.
> 
> For those more familiar with AC2, I request that you also please don't kill me.

Desmond let himself wake slowly, luxuriating in the fact that his head didn’t hurt for the first time in days. And that he was the only one inside it was kind of a big plus.

It was when he tried to move that he discovered a new problem.

 _Fuck._

Every muscle, every joint _ached_. Like a truck had hit him, backed up and ran him over a few more times just to make sure. His body creaked worse than a rusty door hinge as he shoved himself to standing.

A quick glance around showed him to be alone. Damn, the Doctor’s ship was ridiculously huge on the inside, looking impossibly larger than it had in Ezio’s memory.

A loud rumble from his stomach made him glad there was no one around to witness it. God damn. He would have taken on a roomful of Templars armed only with a rusty spoon if they got between him and some food right now. Have some tetanus, Abstergo. A man’s got to eat.

Desmond shuddered to think on what might be going on outside the TARDIS doors. He made his way to the exit, stumbling suddenly to narrowly avoid a plate lying on the floor that most definitely had not been there the second before. He squatted to examine it in disbelief.

Roast beef thinly sliced and piled high made up the mouthwateringly beautiful sandwich he’d ever seen. His appetite roared even louder when he felt it was still warm to the touch. He prodded the top most layer with suspicion. A creamy, white sauce was slathered on top. An experimental sniff and a little lick later confirmed what he first thought; horseradish sauce with just the right amount of tang. Exactly how he liked it.

Creepy.

Yet delicious.

Desmond was already a quarter of the way through his sandwich before he noticed the sensation of being watched. He looked around, a solitary figure in this warm, welcoming space. “Umm, thanks?” he queried the room at large, barely comprehensible through his mouthful.

The center console seemed to brighten for the briefest of seconds before returning to its usual hue.

O-kay. He edged his way to the door and fled the TARDIS in haste.

The space around the Animus was flooded with people and voices. Jesus. It looked like an Assassins' Christmas party out there. Desmond hung back to watch, wolfing down his first real meal in far too long before trying to make himself presentable.

“I’ve taken Baby apart and put her back together again a thousand times!” he heard Rebecca shout. “There’s no fucking way the Animus has anything to do with time travel!”

“So sure of that, are you?” The Doctor churlishly crossed his arms across his chest. “This technology is not human in origin. Stolen from Those That Came Before perhaps?”

“Based on their designs, yes,” Lucy conceded. “But it simply creates a virtual reality. No time travel involved.”

“Clarence Dally- decent chap, fine bridge player too,” the Doctor began, as if she hadn’t spoken. “He worked as a glass blower in Thomas Edison’s workshop. Dealt with the fluoroscope on a daily basis, a whoseywhatsit that produced marvelously sharp xray images for the time. Would get these little sores on his hands. Thought he was simply getting electrical burns from the amount of current he was working with. Nothing to worry about.” His boyish face turned dark as night, sending a chill through them all. “Until the massive quantities of radiation he’d unknowingly received forced his physicians to amputate both of his arms.”

The lanky man draped himself across a chair in exhaustion, eyes still sharp and dangerous. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with. You’re children, toying with a loaded weapon.”

Lucy relented, looking nauseated. “I guess it would explain why the other subjects had… problems.”

“ _Subjects_?” Leaning forward, the Doctor pinned her to the spot with his glare. “How many _subjects_ are we talking about?

“Desmond is the seventeenth,” Shaun offered softly.

“ _What_?” The word left the man like a gunshot. “You watched them go mad yet you kept strapping people in to that-“

The blonde threw up her hands in a bid to head off his building fury. “Look, now that we know what’s happening we can work on making the Animus safer. Abstergo is what you should be worrying about. They’re producing these on a mass scale. The Templars have a warehouse full of them, ready to go.”

“No!” The Doctor sprang to his feet, hands tearing at his temples. “No, no, no, no, _no_!”

“Uh oh.” Chewing at her lip, Amy tracked the pacing man in increasing alarm. “This can’t be good.”

“No, it is not good!” he thundered. “It is very much not good!” He grabbed a startled Lucy by the shoulders. “Tell me! How many do you think they had? All in one place? Ten? Twenty?”

She fought off her bafflement, trying to remember. “A hundred at least. Maybe more. Why would that make a difference?”

The man released her and spun on his heel, his words spilling from his mercurial tongue at a dizzying pace. “A single Animus causes a pinprick that’s shrugged off by the universe, yes? Put together a dozen holes in a single location and you’ve weakened the integrity of space/time. A hundred and you could tear through the barrier between this universe and the next like wet tissue paper. The power that would release would be cataclysmic, destroying everything and anything in its path!”

Ezio murmured, pale in his horror. “The world will burn.”

“Precisely!” The Doctor turned his face upward, hands clenched as he saw terrible things only he could see. “And not just this world. A rupture of that size can cascade out of control until every world, every star, every galaxy within a billion light years would be nothing but dust.”

“So.” Desmond felt all eyes on him as he finally made his presence known. “How do we stop them?”

Shaun was at his side, scanning his face in dazed amazement. “You’re okay!”

“I’m fine,” he said, not able to fully mask his pleasure at the greeting. “Thanks for everything.” Was… was that a blush?

He felt a hand pat him on the back and the moment was gone.

“Ah, Desmond, my good man!” the Doctor said cheerfully as if he hadn’t just announced the destruction of the universe. “Good to see you up and about! Now tell me what you can about these Abstergo people. They sound _fascinating_.”

\--------------------  
They assembled around a rough sketch of Abstergo’s headquarters that Leonardo generated from their descriptions.

The Doctor ran his hands over the penciled layout. “All the little Animi should be centrally connected in some way, yes? I can whip up something to feed them a temporal inharmoic sequence that would fry their computerized brains but doing them individually would take too much time.”

“Yes, but Abstergo uses a physical key to allow users access to their mainframe. You’ll need one of those,” Lucy said, pursing her lips in frustration.

"That shouldn’t be too hard with the TARDIS, right?” Desmond asked. "Just have her appear inside and give me ten minutes. I'll get you your key."

Everyone's attention turned on Amy at her explosive half snort.

"Sorry! Sorry!" She fanned herself, turning bright red as she tried to contain her laughter. “I think I’ve spotted a small flaw in your plan. But please! Do go on!”

"The TARDIS is a little finicky about short hops," the Doctor explained with the deepest of scowls. "I'm afraid it's just not her style.” He pointedly refused to look at his companion as another snort escaped her. “Besides, she has a heavy vortical foot print. Her proximity might precipitate the explosion if the Templars manage to activate enough of their machines at the same time."

“I will get you into this place,” Ezio said heavily, leaning back in his chair. “But is wiping out this location enough? What is to stop them from simply rebuilding all that you destroy?”

“He’s right.” Rebecca chewed on her thumbnail. “They’ll just be up and running again in a few weeks.”

“Besides the Animus, we know that Abstergo is involved in some seriously fucked up shit,” mused Desmond. “Why don’t we dig around for some dirt while we’re in there? Find something bigger than the New Floride experiment they’re already being investigated for. Something that will shut them down for good.”

“That might be next to impossible.”

All eyes turned on Shaun.

“The Assassins' have been trying to get at that sort of information for a while,” he said, turning his computer monitor in their direction as he clicked through a few files. “What you'd be looking for isn't networked outside the building, so you'd have to get a copy while you were in their headquarters. Aside from that it's buried under layers of this crazy sort of encryption where the key changes every fifteen minutes.” He waved a hand as a vast sea of letters and numbers blasted across his screen. “From the examples I've been sent, the fastest I’ve been able to decode it is a little under thirty and that’s on a good day.”

Lucy directed a slack jawed stare at Shaun and he returned her look with an annoyed quirk of the eyebrow that Desmond was pleased to see directed at someone other than him for a change. “What? You think I sit on my arse all day waiting for you lot to give me something to do? You’re not the only ones who need my help.”

“Is this it? The encryption that you mentioned?” Leonardo asked, the image on the screen attracting him like a moth to a flame.

“Yes,” Shaun sighed. “This one’s giving me a bit of trouble but-“

The Englishman did not take well to the “shh” he was given.

“Do you not see the pattern?” the artist asked softly, head canted to one side. “Think of the symbols as shapes rather than letters. Here. Here. And here.” Long fingers danced over the screen. “See how they group together.”

"What? I know you're Leonardo da Vinci and all but there is simply no way you-" Shaun blinked owlishly for a moment before leaning forward in fascination. "Bloody hell!"

Leonardo was oblivious to Shaun's amazement, instead picking up the computer's mouse to turn it over and over in his hands. "You might say I have some experience with things of this nature." The Italian frowned in puzzlement, giving the mouse a tiny shake as he held it to his ear.

Shaun made a strangled noise of exasperation and plucked the mouse from the artist's grasp. Back in his possession, Shaun clicked through, pulling up new windows on the monitor. "Do that again!" he demanded.

The Doctor came forward to watch the process, a small smile beginning to sprout on his face.

"This one," the artist said, pointing to the upper right. "The basis is more mathematical, I think."

Shaun's eyes flitted over the screen in fascination. "Yes! Continuous functions with a continuous inverse! But that's from a branch of mathematics that wasn't discovered until two hundred years after your... your..." He faltered as he met Leonardo's curious gaze. "After your birth. Two hundred years after your birth," he finished with a flush.

"Well done, gentlemen!" the Doctor crowed. "I believe we are almost ready! Messer da Vinci!” He reached into his breast pocket, extracting a small cylindrical object that looked like a bulky, light up pen. “I need a sketch, if you please. I’ll give you ten minutes with this-“

“Twenty,” the artist countered, blue eyes sparkling in their eagerness.

“Fifteen! And no disassembling it, please! It took far too long to put it back together the last time I let you get your hands on it.”

Leonardo caught the sonic screwdriver tossed to him easily, a hint of the devil in his smile. “Bene! You will have your sketch.”

Amy sat up a little straighter. “So what’s the actual plan?”

"Simple. We're going to give the Templars what they want.”

The room was filled with confusion as the Doctor began his dance.

“You two fine, upstanding individuals-" He gestured to Ezio and Desmond, who looked to each other for a second before focusing on the lanky man once more. "Will assist me in a little Animus vandalism."

Twin smirks wiped out centuries of difference between the two.

"You need to work on your Animus," the Doctor said, turning to Lucy and Rebecca. “The inharmonic I'm going to use may stay localized but it might be strong enough to zap your machine from a distance as well. Besides-” He loomed over the two women. “If you don't figure out your little shielding problem, I'll make sure your 'baby' won't be around for much longer in any case.”

The women shared a look of trepidation and shot to their feet, grabbing tools and parts as fast as they could.

“Pond, you're going to help these two brilliant lads find some appropriate clothing!” the Doctor said, clapping a hand on the shoulders of the two men still fussing over patterns on Shaun's computer screen.

“What?” Shaun twisted in his chair, only now processing what the Doctor had said. “Why?”

Leonardo watched the exchange with interest.

“Hmm? Oh!” The Doctor was already heading back to the TARDIS, waving his hand over his shoulder as if the explanation should have been obvious. “While we're off causing a little mayhem, Amy will help you two dig up what we need from their headquarters to put the final nail in the Templars' coffin!”

“No fucking way!” Desmond exploded.

The Doctor's limbs went everywhere as the outburst made him abruptly reverse course.

“They should stay here!” Desmond continued, missing the heated anger Shaun shot at his back. “There's got to be something else we can do!”

Saying nothing, Ezio simply looked to Leonardo with a touch of sadness.

“I am admittedly not a brave man,” the artist said softly, his words meant for one and one alone. “But I will do what needs to be done.”

Ezio nodded slowly in acceptance, lips set in a grim line.

Desmond looked around frantically for agreement from anyone. He turned to Shaun, but the Englishman refused to look at him, his manner as cold and condescending as the day they first met.

“You don't speak for me, Miles,” Shaun said with a sneer. “I'm in.”

The Doctor clapped his hands in delight. “Excellent! Let's get to work, shall we?”  
\-----  
This delight was to be short lived, however.

"This is the fourth outfit you've made him put on. Leonardo da Vinci is not your personal dress up doll!" the Doctor hissed as he trailed behind Amy in the TARDIS dressing rooms.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Says you. He doesn't seem to mind." She turned to admire her handiwork with an appreciative smirk. “Ooo. I like this one.”

Leonardo had emerged from behind the dressing curtain, cutting a dashing figure in the sharp business suit she had picked out for him. The fit was perfect, seemingly made for him and perhaps at some point it had been.

“Oy! C'mere!” she yelled, cheerfully summoning the greatest mind of the Italian Renaissance as if he were a puppy. “Let me help you with that!”

"Simply amazing!" the artist exhorted, examining the cuff of his sleeve as she did up his necktie. "This stitching is so fine, so consistently precise. You say this is done mechanically?"

Amy directed a smug eyebrow over her shoulder. "And _he_ seems to like my work."

The Doctor followed the nod of her head to the sight of a dazzled Ezio.

Sprawled carelessly on the floor, Ezio was frozen mid-bite with a peach in hand from the moment he caught sight of this newly attired Leonardo. He rose with a feline grace, obvious desire on his face making it clear that his appreciation had nothing whatsoever to do with the suit's construction.

The two men locked eyes as Ezio offered the peach to the artist, who took a delicate bite from the fruit in the assassin's hand without looking away.

“I.. uh..” the Doctor stammered, backing up slowly. “Th... think we should be going.” The kiss that followed only confirmed his suspicions. “Pond! We're leaving.” He prodded her with his elbow but she didn't budge. “Leave! Now!'

“Don't mess up that suit!” Amy hollered in the direction of the two occupied men as the Doctor forcibly dragged her behind him to beat a hasty retreat.

\--------------

Desmond had been fruitlessly searching for Shaun for the better part of thirty minutes. What the fuck happened? The Englishman had stormed off in a huff, not even taking the time to deliver anything even remotely sarcastic.

That must have meant that Desmond had stepped in it but good.

He had to find him. Had to say _something_ to Shaun if they were going to go on this insane mission. How was any of what they were doing right now supposed to help them get into Abstergo? He headed down the corridor, planning on checking the Englishman's bedroom for the third time.

The sight that greeted him caught him flatfooted. He had no idea why the Doctor wanted Shaun dressed this way but the clean line of the man in the slick suit made Desmond go -

“Goddamn.” Jesus. He was a moron.

"What?" Shaun finally acknowledged his gawking self and promptly turned back to the dressing mirror in irritation."Can't stand the thought of me stealing your thunder?"

Desmond let out a puff of frustration, more annoyed at himself for letting things get so out of hand more than anything else. “No.”

The historian fussed with the knot of his tie with more violence than was necessary. “Don't think I can hack it then? You’re not the only one who knows how to fight. I am an assassin after all. Learned the old fashioned way, too. No sponging off my ancestors like some people, just hard work and practice. Maybe you’d forgotten whilst you were having your little nap.”

God damn it the urge to pop the asshole across the jaw was rising. “No, I know you can take care of yoursel-”

Shaun stepped up, toe to toe, angrier than Desmond had ever seen him. “Or did you come to gloat? Rub everything I’ve ever wanted in my face- you got to visit the past, fuck, it’s even worse because it wasn’t some virtual reality, you were actually there even if it was just to watch and now, now you’re going to run off with the Doctor and you act like me helping in some miniscule way is too much for your precious ego -“

Wrapping a hand around the man’s tie, Desmond cut off the rant by dragging Shaun closer with a not-so-gentle tug. “Maybe it’s because I don’t want you to get hurt, jackass.”

Must have lost his damn mind, but Desmond couldn’t resist, had to give in to weeks of frustration on the mouth hanging half open in shock. The kiss lasted a painfully awkward eternity that in actuality was only a few seconds, Shaun completely rigid and unresponsive.

Desmond let him go, staring at the ceiling, the light fixture, the crappy paintjob, _anything_ but the man himself. “Shit, I… god,” he babbled. “Let’s just forget I… that was-”

He wasn’t at all surprised when he was shoved backwards into the wall by two great fistfuls of his t-shirt. Shaun was red faced, glaring at him over the top of his glasses. “What are you playing at, Miles? Need a laugh at my expense?”

“No game.” He tried to smile but his face collapsed inwards into misery. “Just plain old dumb.”

He didn’t fight the heel of Shaun’s palm catching him under the chin, forcing his head painfully to one side. Something was coming, he knew. A shot to the gut. A knee to the junk. You deserve everything you get, dumbass.

Pretty much the last thing he expected was a tongue tracing the outline of his adam’s apple.

The moan that escaped him was long and low.

“You fucking bastard,” Shaun hissed, damn near clawing at Desmond’s neck, as that tongue continued to lave along the curve of it.

Too awash in hope and sensation, Desmond’s hands roamed over the other man’s back, unsure of what more to do with them.

“Miles-“

The edge of his t-shirt was shoved up past his collar bone and Desmond bit off a shout to arch up into the teeth tugging at his nipple. His cock sprang to life, painfully hard, painfully fast, demanding more.

“Your timing-“

Frantically blinking as the contact suddenly vanished, Desmond was all of a sudden bucking against Shaun mouthing him through his jeans. “Fuck!”

“-is abysmal.”

Desmond threaded his fingers through spiky hair, suspecting he had a 50:50 chance of it being encouraging or simply pissing the guy off. Lips traced the length of him, teasing pressure that felt- “Ffff- _fuck_!”

Then it was gone.

They stared at each other, disheveled and panting like they’d just finished sprinting a quarter mile.

Shaun rose to his feet, turning back to the dressing mirror to readjust his tie as if he hadn’t just been trying to eat Desmond alive. “Wipe that smile off your face, idiot,” he said, the crack in his voice betraying the cool, calm exterior. “There's still work to be done.”


	7. Child's Play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter ends in a silly place but it was getting hideously long.

Desmond scanned the buildings surrounding them, wind blasting through the alleyway behind Abstergo to tear at his clothes.

“This lets the Templars see us from afar?” Ezio asked, subtly adjusting the angle of a security camera away from the entrance they planned on entering.

“Yeah,” Desmond answered as he leaned in, checking the other man’s work by peering over his shoulder. “Sort of like a telescope… buuut you wouldn’t know what a telescope is either, would you?” he added with no small embarrassment at Ezio’s puzzled frown.

“It wouldn’t be the first thing that bewilders me about this future…” The older assassin opened up fully with a beleaguered smile.“But I cannot let that stop me.”With that, Ezio was off with hardly a sound, eagle vision highlighting the next hidden camera he needed to modify.

Desmond wiped his hands clean on his jeans, unable to take his eyes off the man.All of this must have seemed so bizarre, so alien but somehow the Italian managed to take it all in stride.

The end result was that it only repeated what he already knew.His ancestors had left him some pretty big shoes to fill.Even though he’d grown up in Lil’Assassins Daycare, Desmond knew he’d never been tested.

Not like Altaïr.

Not like Ezio. 

A few hops in the Animus making him faint like some dainty southern belle hadn’t exactly boosted his confidence.It didn’t help that he had no idea if the respite from the voices in his head was something that was gone for good or merely temporary.

With his luck he’d have another fit in the heat of battle.Fuck.Maybe they could use his body as a shield so he could at least be useful for once.

He sighed heavily.

They were in deep shit, weren’t they?

“Blast!”

The yell of annoyance dragged his attention back to the Doctor, who was giving his weird sonic doohickey a shake as its light flickered in some weak Morse code.“Leonardo, I told you not to disassemble this, you… Sneaky! Little-“Any other choice words he had for the artist were lost as the Doctor trailed off, long fingers dancing over the device as he made adjustments.

“Hey, Doc.“A pointed scowl at the diminutive made Desmond add on a hasty “-tor.” 

Any further disapproval vanished as the light on the screwdriver finally shined a brilliant emerald. "There we are!"

Figuring his chances weren't going to get any better, Desmond pressed ahead. “Can we talk about something?”

"Ooo, sounds like a fun game!" the Doctor said in delight, paying little attention as he used the screwdriver on a something that looked an awful lot like a can of air freshener. “I’ll go first! Winston Churchill had atrocious taste in bowties.Right idea!Poor execution.”The not-air freshener popped open to reveal a bizarrely complex mechanism packed inside.“I’ve tried to offer him guidance but he’s quite the stubborn sort, if you can believe it.”

“Uhh, yeah.That… wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

The Doctor looked up from his task, completely failing to mask his disappointment.

This guy? _This_ guy was supposed to help them save the universe?

They were in deeper shit than he thought.

Desmond let out the breath he didn’t realize he was holding.“I want to thank you for patching me up when I was all-“ His whistle was sharp and sweet, punctuated with a waggle of fingers directed at his temple.

“Actually it was the TARDIS that gave you a good scrubbing,” the Doctor said proudly, snapping the not-air freshener shut with a slap of his hand.“The vortex is filled with artron energy and her engines thrive on it.Your species can only process it once you’ve had certain…” The way the man suddenly refused to meet Desmond’s eyes set the small hairs on the back of his neck on end. “Modifications.”

“When she did whatever she did- can she do it again?Just in case?I can’t risk cracking up. Not when things might blow up in all our faces.” Desmond swallowed hard as his insecurity wormed its way to the surface.“I… I’m the weak link here and I’ll do whatever it takes to change that.”

“You aren’t weak.”The Doctor’s smile faded into grave sincerity.“Far from it.The energies you were exposed to were literally astronomical. _No_ human would have been able to withstand it for long.” 

“But Sixteen… the other subjects… From what everyone says, they didn’t react like I did-“

“Were any of them in the habit of having their ancestors pop round to visit them for a change?The very instance of Ezio stepping into the present with one of his descendants created a massive disturbance in time.A temporal earthquake. The closer you got to the event, the worse it became. Your useless machine had no way to handle that so it left you completely unprotected.”

“The Animus!” Desmond went wide eyed as he remembered the days that had lead to this new level of insanity. “It was running hot, not working right…”

“That hunk of garbage was never working right!” the Doctor said angrily.“And if your friends don’t manage to correct it, it will never be allowed to work again!”

“So I’m not going to lose it.” The relief was palpable.

“Nope!” The not-air freshener flew into the air as the Doctor cheerfully tossed it and caught it again.“The only possibility of artron exposure around here will be when this little lovely generates the inharmonic that takes out all the Animii.”The not-can managed to magically disappear into a coat pocket with a little reassuring pat, leaving no outward evidence that the pocket contained anything at all. “And the only one who will be handling it will be me.”

A dark figure dropped between them.“We are done here,” said Ezio.“Let us begin.”

\----------------------------

Crossing his legs in the plush chair, Shaun attempted to feign some semblance of nonchalance with his pulse pounding in his ears. Perhaps some physical impediment would break his current desire to sprint from the room shrieking like an eight year old girl.

Give the Templars what they want, the Doctor had said.

Shaun should have asked him to be more specific.Strolling through the front door of Abstergo with a ridiculously flimsy cover story, a master of the Renaissance and a brammer of a redhead was not what any sane person would have imagined to be a good plan.

Though it should have been painstakingly obvious that sanity was a concept the Doctor was wholly unfamiliar with.

Twenty minutes.Desmond had said they’d need twenty minutes to enter the heart of the building, get the Doctor closer to the Animii before creating a distraction to let Shaun and Amy help Leonardo crack Abstergo’s servers wide open.

He squinted at the clock on the wall, trying to not be obvious that he could barely make out the time.Maybe his urge to flee was worsened by the lack of his glasses.They were tucked away, a last ditch attempt at camouflage once they were introduced to the Templar who had greeted them.

A stout figure he knew best from reports from the Assassins settled into the chair opposite him, forcing his heart into his throat.

Maybe not being able to see right now was precisely what he needed.

“Well, this is terribly exciting!”said the fuzzy outline of Warren fucking Vidic with an oily congeniality that made Shaun’s skin crawl.“I could hardly wait to see it when they told me!A newly discovered da Vinci original.”

Amy tilted her head, looking completely at ease. “I’m glad you could meet with us so quickly, Doctor Vidic. Our client is eager to make a sale and thought this might be right up Abstergo’s alley.” 

Dear god.

How often had Amy gone along with the schemes of a madman to act like this was just a chance to pop round to the shop? No wonder there were so few witnesses who admitted to meeting the Doctor.Any of them who managed to live through the ordeal would probably have refused to discuss it at the risk of dying of shame.

“I’ll admit that when the company forwarded me your email it proved…irresistible, Miss Pond.”

Ugh.Shaun wasn’t even the target of the boldly lecherous look Vidic gave the redhead and he _still_ wanted to flay his skin off with a belt sander. 

“I’ve always had a certain fondness for da Vinci’s work! Such brilliance!”

The historian shot a glance at Leonardo, who looked quite at home in the lion’s den.He supposed the man had lived in a time where the literally backstabbing deals of Italian nobility were a daily occurrence so this probably was probably a refreshingly stress free change of pace.

“Then you will find what we have to offer most intriguing,” said the Italian, taking the unwitting compliment in stride.“I can without a doubt confirm that it is done by his hand.”

“Excellent to hear, Mister…”Vidic grasped for a name.

“Piero,” Leonardo answered smoothly.“I have much experience with da Vinci’s works.”

“Then you won’t mind if I verify its authenticity,” the Templar said with fake civility.

Leonardo returned a polite smile. “Not at all.”

Shaun heard his cue, reaching for the briefcase at his side.“Here you are.”This sort of thing had never been part of his job description.“I think you’ll find the drawing’s subject matter of particular interest.”

“You look familiar,” Vidic said, forehead furrowing in bushy eyebrowed scrutiny.“Have we met before, Mister Walford?”

“That’s Wallace!” Shaun snarled at Vidic’s blurry face, having no problem pouring every bit of annoyance he’d every possessed into his words. After all, Desmond had given him plenty of practice.“And I find that highly unlikely.” He popped the briefcase open and slid it across the table. 

“That’s… that’s a sonic screwdriver! From his eleventh incarnation!” Vidic whispered to himself, lighting up with naked greed- hopefully the first and last time Shaun would ever again in his life have to associate the name ‘Vidic’ with the word ‘naked’.

“Magnificent!” The briefcase shut with an audible snap.“I think I’ve seen all I need to see here.”

“Wonderful!” Amy said, batting her long lashes to take full advantage of her assets.“Let’s discuss payment.”

A quick glance at the clock and Shaun let out a sigh of relief.Just ten more minutes of this ridiculousness and then it would be show time.

“Let’s not. How about instead we discuss why you’re trying to sell me such an obvious fake?”

Well. 

Piss.

\------------------------------------

Why was nothing ever simple?

Desmond deflected a swing easily, dancing away from the two Abstergo guards they had found.Or more accurately had found them.Neither of the men looked like they’d give much difficulty in a fight but- 

Tasers!Since when had the Templars gotten their hands on _fucking_ tasers?Couldn’t they have just used their stupid batons like they always did?

He shot a glance at Ezio who had dropped into a fighting stance.Christ. How the fuck do you explain a taser to a man who knew precisely dick about electricity?

“Don’t get let them touch you with that!” Desmond yelled in warning. 

Or at least he tried to say that.

Tried and failed as every muscle, every nerve was on fire from the 50,000 volts coursing through the probe the guard who’d kept his distance had fired into his back.

Agony.

Good god, it was overwhelming.It went on forever and there was nothing, absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.Useless arms, falling on his face, muscles twitching out of his control as he flopped to the floor.

“No!” The fierce bellow from Ezio sounded more like an enraged bull as the assassin put a solid fist into the solar plexus of the guard attacking Desmond. 

The Doctor pounced on the doubled over Templar, delivering a shout and some bizarre karate looking chop to the neck before he lowered the guard to the floor, unconscious.“Ha! Been a few centuries but I’ve still got it!”

Turning, Ezio hesitated at the sight of the taser’s wires still embedded in Desmond’s back. The second guard came up behind the Italian surprisingly swiftly, too close to fire his own taser, probably hoping to get close enough to stun instead.Desmond tried to get his mouth to move but his muscles were still not yet ready to listen to him.

Pressing the trigger, the stocky Templar managed to tag Ezio in the shoulder.

There was a loud _crack_ and with it a foul stench that filled the air.

A brief moment of confusion for everyone, including the unlucky Templar.

The first to regain his wits, Ezio turned on his attacker- who let out a little whimper as he tried touching the stun gun to Ezio’s chest again and again.The device failed to make so much as a peep as the assassin grabbed the guard with one hand, lifting the man off his feet to pin the Templar to the wall by his throat.

“No killing! Promise me that or I do this on my own!”

Ezio flicked a look of irritation at the Doctor.“As you wish.”His free hand came up, heel of his palm smashing upwards to create an explosion of blood where the guard’s nose had previously been.He released the incapacitated man, letting the poor bastard crumple to the floor blinded by pain.

“Not that I’m complaining-” Desmond struggled to rise, wincing as he pulled out the electrodes still buried in his back. “But what the fuck just happened?”

The Doctor leaned over the bleeding Templar. “Sorry about all this but you really should try to find another line of work!” He snagged the stun gun by the man’s side and gave it a sniff before pitching it back to the ground.

“Brilliant!”The lanky man turned on Ezio in a fit of joy, grabbing him, pulling the startled assassin in by his ears to plant a noisy smooch to the forehead.“You’re wearing clothes under your armour, aren’t you?” The Doctor hopped into the air in a bizarre little jig that looked like he had just been tasered himself. “You’d have to be, of course you are!”

“For once you might wish to explain yourself in a somewhat coherent fashion,” Ezio rumbled, not bothering to hide his annoyance as he wiped his brow with distaste.

“The metal you’re wearing makes their stun guns go poof!These guards would hardly have been expecting that.Body armour is not precisely en vogue in this day and age, now is it?”

“Short circuited,” Desmond mused as he divested the guard who’d attacked him of his weapons.“And the clothes Ezio’s wearing underneath it insulated him from the shock?”

“Precisely!”The Doctor was already looking down the next hallway.“Now the bit where it gets tricky is making sure you don’t get hit on any squishy parts.Keep moving! We’ve got to stay on schedule!” 


	8. Child's Play

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rating this chapter R for violence. Quite a bit of violence actually.

Silence hung in the air after Vidic’s pronouncement.

"Did you really think you would fool me?" the Templar demanded, words oozing condescension.  "I wasn't born yesterday.” He shoved the briefcase back towards Shaun with a dismissive wave of his hand.  “Unlike this sketch."

The Englishman took half a heartbeat to squint at the clock, barely listening. The point of their little charade had been to get into Abstergo with some quality alone time with one of their higher ups and bluff it out until the appointed time except here they were with… nine minutes left.

Damn it.  Couldn’t Vidic have been _more_ of a pompous blowhard for once?  Him pontificating about something or another would have surely filled many of those minutes they so desperately needed.

Now came the tough choices.  Take Vidic out too early and their risk of detection went up a hundred fold.  String the surly bastard along somehow and Abstergo would be too busy dealing with three men who collectively would be the largest pain in the ass the Templars would ever have the joy of experiencing.

Vidic rose from the table and Shaun was almost elated.  Go ahead.  Kill some time, Warren.

The Templar circled around to pace in front of the three with the tone of a disappointed headmaster.  “This had so much potential!  Tease some chump change out of Abstergo with a tempting morsel involving da Vinci and the Doctor.  Certainly the company has made no secret of our interest in either of them.  But the devil's in the details isn't it? At least try to make it look like a five hundred year old relic next time."

He paused, rocking on his heels in mirth as if he just remembered a great joke.  "How silly of me. There won't be a next time because after my men are through with you there won't be anything left but a few stains and some rather unpleasant work for our cleaning staff.”

Leonardo was stoic, merely arching an elegant eyebrow. “There is no need for threats, sir. You are a man of logic, but may I suggest your thinking is too rigid. On the surface your judgment is sound but you blind yourself to more… intriguing possibilities. The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

“You dare throw quotes at me?” Vidic barked, burst of temper blasting past his oily veneer.  "What's the simpler explanation?   One of the most elusive beings in history decides to hold a garage sale or you're just a pack of charlatans out to make a quick buck?  This is a waste of my time.” He leaned in, ferocious scowl inches from Leonardo's unflinching gaze.  “The truth will be extracted from you soon enough.”

Wonderful.  Shaun tried to not let his leg begin bouncing in nervousness. Seven minutes left and we’ve already run out of discussion topics that don’t involve torture.  Templars must be great fun at parties.  If only Vidic had been not so massive a prick that he might actually recognize the truth when he was quite literally staring it in the face. 

Shaun analyzed the large ventilation duct that jutted out of the far wall, idly wondering whether the duct would be a good means of escape for the others if he managed to fend off the imminent brute squad.

“Hey now, beardy!” Amy called, brogue thickening with her bravado.  “There’s no need for that kind of talk!”

The Templar faced her, rage starting to make his blood boil over.

Amy, Amy, Amy.  The Englishman let out a slow breath, counting down the seconds as they ticked by.  You’re brilliant.  Insane.   But brilliant.

“You're a bit thick, aren't you?” She spoke with disdain, an attitude Vidic was intimately familiar with. “Some anger management issues too.  Your innate charm means you probably don't have much of a personal life soooo I’ll wager it’s your employers being less than pleased with your on-the-job performance to make you such a Grumpy Gus.”

Shaun turned his groan inward. Good god, woman.   Either the redhead’s massive balls were going to run out the clock or they would all die in the next ten seconds when Vidic's head promptly exploded like the bloated carcass of a beached whale.   Not entirely sure which he’d rather see, he took the briefcase containing the sketch in hand as unobtrusively as possible.

Her eyes flashed.  “No wonder you lot discovered so little about the Doctor.  Too little imagination.”

“If this is an attempt to talk me out of having you killed, you're doing a terrible job!” Vidic growled. 

“Such a shame,” she said wistfully, as if he’d said nothing of consequence. “You have all the answers in your greedy little hand but you just aren’t clever enough to work it all out.”

Oh, dear.

Vidic took a menacing step towards her, shoulders hunched and ready for violence. “You smug little bitch-"

“Well, look at the time,” Shaun piped in, setting the briefcase in his lap.   “This has simply been oodles of fun, but we really must be going. Are you sure you don’t want to give the sketch one last look?”

Vidic turned on his heel to face him with murderous intent.

The Englishman shrugged, looking almost apologetic. “Fine, then.  If you insist!” 

The briefcase came flying at Vidic.  Instincts had the man batting it away, leaving him totally unprepared for the solid fist that Shaun delivered to his jaw

The Templar went down -hard- hitting the floor like a felled tree.

“Took you long enough!”  Amy sauntered up to Shaun with her hands settled on her hips in reproach. “Were you waiting for an engraved invitation?  ‘Dear Shaun, now is the time to pop this jerk in the face.  Sincerely, everyone’?”

He flexed his hand, knuckles still stinging as he reached for his glasses. "I’m sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry in the slightest. “Did you mean for me to interrupt sooner? The pair of you were getting on so well I thought we were about to break out some soft music and a nice bottle of wine." 

Leonardo studied the unconscious body on the floor with distaste. “It seems impossible that five centuries leave the Templars unchanged in their ways.”

“Hopefully one thing will stay the same.” Shaun busied himself with rifling through lab coat pockets.  “They can't take a punch to save their li-ah, here we are!” 

It was only after pulling out the sought after access pen and key card that he permitted himself a small smile.

\-----------------

Desmond hiked up his sleeves to better heft an unconscious Abstergo employee over his shoulder.   He tossed the woman on top of the other bodies already piled high in a supply closet.  “This is gonna lead to some awkward conversation around the water cooler tomorrow.”  

With nimble fingers, he liberated the woman’s access pen and backed out to let Ezio seal off the room.  

Halfway through keying in the lock’s code, the older assassin froze- eagle vision giving his irises an ethereal glow.  Finishing off the sequence, the glow faded and Desmond felt the full weight of his scrutiny.

“That is my… How did I not notice before?” the Italian murmured.  His hand came up in indecision.  “May I?”

Desmond tried to follow the man’s line of sight.  “May you wh-“  Eyes were tracking his arm as he dropped his hands to his sides.

Oh.   It had been easy to forget the weight strapped to his forearm.  It had felt far too familiar from the moment he had first put it on.

The younger assassin offered his arm for examination and Ezio did the same, both revealing the hidden blade each man had strapped to his wrist.  Almost identical- just some minor cosmetic differences, the leather straps long since replaced- but otherwise unchanged with the passage of time. 

How many generations, how many hands had the device passed through?  How much blood had it spilled?

Ezio was near breathless. “I cannot believe you use it still.”

 “Yeah, well-“  Desmond offered up a crooked smile.  “Sometimes the old ways are best.”

“Good work, gentlemen!”  Breaking through their reverie, the Doctor snatched the access pen from Desmond’s hand and promptly made it disappear into his magic pockets.  “Twenty should be quite enough.”

Any hesitancy in the Italian evaporated.  “We are out of time in any case. How should we begin?”

“How ‘bout setting off a few smoke bombs?” suggested Desmond, pointing to the ceiling.  “Trip the optical smoke detectors.”

“No, no, no!" the Doctor replied, scandalized.  "Far too pedestrian if we’re going to give the others enough time to complete their task.”  He had his sonic screwdriver out in a flash, brow knitting in concentration as he worked over a video intercom mounted on the far wall.  “For our purposes, we need to bring the whole… house… down.” 

A devilish smile took over his face as the screen flickered to life, revealing a mix of faces looking back, astonishment rippling through them like a wave.

"Hello!" he began, tapping the screen as if this would somehow better capture their attention.  "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the Doctor!  I understand you've been looking for me for quite some time.  Well, here I am!” 

He leaned closer to the screen, an icy menace punching through his cheery demeanor fast enough to force a chill on anyone watching.

“Come and get me.”

\----

The conference room was suddenly bathed in flashing red lights.

“Thaaat's my boy!” Amy announced proudly at the warning klaxon booming from the hallway.  She tightened her knot with relish, impressed with her own hog tying of Vidic under the Templar’s slowly awakening glare.  “I suspect your evil henchmen will be a wee bit too busy to bother with us for a while.” 

Topping off her work by using the man’s tie as an improvised gag, she turned back to the two men hovering anxiously over an Abstergo branded laptop. “How’re things over there?”

“Fuck!” was Shaun's reply. 

“Not so good then, I take it.”

The Englishman slammed a hand atop the conference table as the laptop flashed a warning of ‘Invalid Password’ and went dark.  His fingers clattered over the keyboard lightening fast as he tried to get the laptop to wake up again.

Leonardo rolled up his shirt sleeves, jacket long since discarded.  “I’m sorry.”

“No worries, no worries,” Shaun muttered, clearly not heeding his own advice. “We'll keep trying.  No one expected we’d be able to get in on the first go.”

They all leaned in as a fresh batch of numbers and letters stormed across the screen.  No one spoke, no one breathed, trying to ignore the passing of time.

“There’s a pattern here… and here.”  Leonardo absently pulled out a scrap of paper and furiously jotted down a jumble of what looked like nonsense. 

“I’ve seen that before. Somewhere… somewhere…” Shaun said with a frown, grabbing a pen to fill in the rest of one string. “Yes! A Vigenère table.”

“The name is unfamiliar but I believe I understand.”  The artist hastily added a second line of characters, then a third.  “Start here and work your way diagonally.”

“Looks promising.”  Shaun tapped a long line of characters, checking and rechecking the chart they had cobbled together.

There was a beep and a welcome screen appeared to a collective sigh of relief.

"What now?" Amy asked.

Shaun pulled the laptop closer.  "Time for some digging."

\----

"’Come and get me’, huh?" Desmond shot angrily over his shoulder, head butting one of many Templars that had flooded the hallway.  He dropped to the floor, using a long-legged sweep to knock the feet out from under three more.  "Could you maybe, I dunno, _not_ piss off the people who want to kill us?"

“Where's your sense of adventure?” the Doctor shouted back, neatly sidestepping the wild swing of a telescoping baton.  The person wielding the weapon took out the guard behind his intended target instead. “This is your sort of thing, isn’t it? You’re supposed to like all of this hitting business!”

Ezio trapped the hand of a guard still foolish enough to be wielding a taser and twisted, the bones of the forearm snapping neatly at the wrist.  “We’re assassins!” he growled.  The injured guard became a weapon, swung bodily around to take out two others before the assassin could finish his testy reply.  “Typically there is some measure of stealth involved!”

Another swing and the Doctor dodged a blow that landed on a different unsuspecting target. “Ugh! Sounds dreadfully boring!

====

Amy noticed Shaun go rigid in his seat.  “You found something?”

“Yes.  I...There were always rumours but...” he said, disbelief weighing down his words. 

He fell silent, slowly rising from his seat to grab the briefcase from where it had fallen. The sketch inside was discarded to remove a false bottom from underneath.  Shaun disposed of the cover with a savage toss.

The man violently dismantling the briefcase held their attention for a few more moments before Leonardo redirected his focus to the screen before him, attempting to make sense of the unfamiliar English text.  Amy leaned in, sharing the words aloud in a hushed whisper.

Lake Nyos, Cameroon.

One of three lakes in the entire world known to be saturated with massive quantities of carbon dioxide.  One sweltering hot August day in 1986, a massive outgassing occurred, creating a giant cloud of pure CO2 that swept the countryside.  Anything and everything within twenty five kilometers that needed oxygen to survive suffocated.  Close to two thousand people dead.  Livestock, wildlife.  All dead.  It was thought the disaster was triggered by a phenomenon that was natural.  A landslide.

It had been anything but natural.

Trying not to wretch, Amy continued to read aloud the dispassionate accounting of the weapons test that had triggered it all.  The reports advising Abstergo geologists how to best craft their official reports to the world's governments to mask the truth.  It was just a bunch of poor third world farmers.  No one would look too closely. A tragedy that was unpredictable, unavoidable.

Leonardo sat back, looking pale. “How do those that claim they wish to better mankind not realize they become less human by committing such acts?” he asked weakly.

The response from Shaun was flat, impenetrably hard. “Doesn't matter.”  He pulled out two objects from their hiding place in the case: two cylindrical lengths of hardwood, patterns charred into them and sanded smooth. “This ends today.”

 ------

The room full of Animi was an impressive sight.

It was no less massive or austere than Desmond remembered.  A window in the shape of a Templar cross dominated the expanse leading to the high ceilings, shining down onto a labyrinthine arrangement of glass walled cubicles each containing its own Animus.  Harsh lighting from fixtures that hung from long lengths of  
chain  
like candelabra only added to the room’s cool sterility, a cathedral to modernity.

It didn’t take long for what few personnel there were to be herded into an office, allowing the Doctor to rig the lock to trap them inside. The two assassins split up to defend either entrance on opposite sides of the room, leaving the Doctor to hunt for the Animi’s central controls to cause his bit of temporal vandalism.

“Any sign of them?” Ezio asked, doing his best to remain calm as the minutes ticked by.  The door he watched over slid open and the sight of an unfamiliar face made him lob a smoke bomb directly at it. “Neither my ammunition nor patience are infinite!” Following up with a well aimed throwing knife had the guards rushing to seal the door again.

The Doctor was at the far end of the room, trying to coax the main computer into giving him the access he needed. “I’m sure they’ll be along shortly,” he said breezily, brows knitted in concentration.

“I got something!” Desmond called, ear pressed to the door he was protecting. 

He could just make out Amy’s panicked cry through the sounds of fighting: “This is the place!  How are we going to get through the guards?”

Next came Shaun’s shout. “Don’t worry! Just keep go –ugh!” 

The sound of someone taking a hit made Desmond even more impatient to get the door open.  “In! In! In!” he shouted, ushering Leonardo and Amy back to relative safety before turning to assist.

Two guards were already on the floor moaning in pain but three more had backed Shaun into a corner. The Englishman dropped into a ready stance, ignoring the blood dripping from his freshly split lip.   Doce pares sticks were in hand, one perched on either shoulder in a manner that would have looked casual if Desmond didn’t know firsthand that ‘casual’ was something rarely on Shaun’s agenda.  He closed in with blade at the ready, ready to defend Shaun by whatever means necessary.

His help wasn’t needed.  Hands were in motion, the wooden yantok coming down across bodies hard and fast, shattering the hand of one guard into uselessness.  There was a crack as the second guard had his cheek smashed in and the last sank to the floor to nurse his freshly fractured ankle.

Desmond was slack jawed, mouth slowly curving into an appreciative smile. “Niiice!”

The smirk that tugged at Shaun’s lips looked simply delicious. “They don’t just keep me around for my stunningly good looks.”

Together they cleaned up what weapons were scattered on the floor before a stampede of approaching feet had them falling back.

The sonic screwdriver sang in the Doctor’s hand, disabling the lock as soon as the door slid shut behind them.  “Both doors secured. That should keep them out for a while!”

“A very little while!” Amy pointed halfway up one wall at the farthest end of the room.  One of the room’s industrial sized air collection ducts showed some motion and man sized silhouettes  standing behind its grate.

Face falling for the briefest of seconds, the Doctor was sprinting back to the central controls. “Keep them busy!  If I can get the temporal inharmonic going they won’t be quite so eager to join us!”

As one, Ezio and Desmond contemplated the man-sized grate bounded by twenty feet of featureless wall.   A tight plume of flame from inside the duct began cutting its way through thin metal.  Voices began to filter out, echo making it difficult to count.

The younger assassin let out a low groan.  “This is going to suck, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Ezio sighed wearily, hand making a pass over the scruff of his chin. “Yes I believe so.”

Moving past them, Leonardo was transfixed, blue eyes wide as he tried to take everything in all at once.  “Perhaps…”

Ezio watched the artist just as intently. “You have something?”

“This lighting,” he said, pointing to the fixtures  
above their heads  
. “  
It's secure, yes?  With enough momentum could they not act as a pendulum?"

Ezio broke into a grin that was wide and wicked.  “Finally a chance to have some fun.”

“Not if I get there first, Grandpa!” Desmond called out and the two assassins were off, each scrambling up the side of cubicles in a race to get more height. 

Shaun stared after the two men as they sprinted along narrow edges of the cubicles with ease, like children at play. “Lunatics," he murmured. "They’re complete and utter lunatics.”

A small cough redirected his attention to Leonardo.  “It adds to their charm, does it not?” the artist asked with a hint of amusement.

The two watched the sprinting men, Desmond holding the lead until Ezio sprang upwards to haul himself atop the closest fixture. The older assassin navigated more swiftly from light to light than Desmond could manage from atop the cubicles, leapfrogging across the top of the suspended fluorescents.

The older assassin passed Desmond overhead and the young man’s groan of disappointment coaxed a snort of laughter from Shaun.  “I suppose it does.”

There was a creak of metal then a loud crash as the grate dropped to the floor from where it had been cut away from the duct.  Ropes spilled to the floor, body after uniformed body abseiling swiftly down the wall.

 “If they  
manage to  
reopen the doors  
from the inside  
, we’re fucked!” Shaun looked to Leonardo and Amy.  “You two keep out of sight!”  With that he sprinted towards the breach, yantok in either hand.

Still running atop the cubicles, Desmond launched himself off of his higher vantage point directly at the first of the Templars to reach the ground.  The guard made an excellent crash pad, getting flattened by the assassin’s fall.  In an instant, Desmond was on his feet, slashing his hidden blade across another’s hip.  Even as the Templar fell, three more came to face the blade that came down again and again.

A scream followed by the crunch of bone breaking happened as a person was dropped on top of the guards trying to surround Desmond.  Swinging like mad, Ezio had the light fixture rocking back and forth to pluck guards from the duct just as they emerged only to dump them on their allies below. 

There were pools of red on the floor at Desmond’s feet by the time he realized the Templars were merely taking his blows but not fully initiating an attack.  Only seven of them now even though he’d counted eight before.  Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Mister Eight trying to slip into the Animus maze. 

“Where do you think _you’re_ going?” he demanded, preparing to run after the man but the blood coating his sneakers had him losing all traction, making him wipe out _hard_ on the  
slick  
steel floor. 

The remaining guards were on him like a pack of ravenous wolves.

Still using his vantage point, Ezio used the next swing of the light fixture to launch himself through the air, curling inwards to bowl through the Templars standing just inside the air duct. He made use of the confined space, battering and slicing his way through the guards to make them sorely regret their plan of attack. 

Half lost in the maze, Shaun’s swear was spectacularly loud when he caught sight of an escaping Templar speeding away. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he chanted with each step as he gave chase, but the man was faster than he looked and was gone. 

The Englishman tried to listen for footsteps but the sounds of a skirmish didn’t make things any easier.  An abortive cry of pain that pieced the cacophony had Shaun rooted to the spot.  Desmond?  

Racing around one corner then another and there was Desmond, clothes spattered with blood, trying to defend himself against impossible numbers.  The American lashed out at those around him-now numbering ten at least- stabbing a guard in the thigh even as a baton strike across his shoulders had him falling to one knee.

Shaun went after the Templars in full larga mano, whipping at unprotected hands and heads, fury at the brutality he’d found at Abstergo’s heart fueling the power of his strikes.  Even those with tasers had no chance, the lack of conductivity through the wooden yantok easily taking out their sting.

The brief respite allowed Desmond to return to his feet.  A quick glance up at the duct showed Ezio slice through one rope and halfway through the other when-

“Cazzo!”  Ezio made an agitated scan of the room, eyes aglow.  “The doors  
are no longer sealed  
!  The Templars are here!”  He used the half-cut rope to descend in a hurry then finished the rope off with a mighty tug.   
The flashes of red in his  
eagle vision told him there were many enemies. 

Too many.

“D-doctor!”  Amy’s shout rose above the din, her panic radiating from somewhere within the labyrinth of cubicles.  “Would you mind speeding things up a bit?”

Back at the controls for the Animi, the Doctor was oblivious to the agitation in her voice.  "Useless!" he fumed loudly, flinging access pen after access pen over his shoulder in his own frustration. "Useless!  None of these ridiculous access things have high enough clearance to let me in!"

Shaun nearly whiplashed himself at these words, regaining his focus in time to narrowly avoid a punch to level a solid blow to the armpit.  “Take this!” he yelled to Desmond, tossing one of the yantok in the air.

Desmond easily caught  
the stick  
in mid-flight and continued the motion, whirling in a great big arc that caught three guards across the throat in one go.  “What the hell are you doing?” he yelled, bewildered by the sight of the Englishman searching his own pockets even as they continued to battle.

An access pen was thrust into Desmond’s free hand. 

“Get this to the Doctor!  It’s Vidic’s!  That creepy bastard _has_ to have high enough clearance.”  Shaun’s thin lipped determination dropped for a second to reveal the true extent of his worry. “Go!”

Desmond bashed a guard in the gut hard enough to get the man to fold in half and followed through with a blow to the back of the head before relinquishing the yantok back to its owner. He sprang up, climbing the cubicle wall to get above the fray.

His heart sank at the flood of Templars but he continued, no hesitation in his stride.

"There he is!"

"Get him!"

Calls from the guards merely made Desmond run faster, leaping from thin edge to edge, effortlessly jumping gaps as if they were nothing. 

The Doctor was too intent on the controls that were steadfastly ignoring him in return to notice two Templars creeping up on him.

But Desmond saw them.

With one final push, the assassin flew through the air, landing feet first on one of the guards to the sound of ribs cracking under his heels.  Retrieving the down guard's baton, he took the remaining guard out at the knees, delivering a kick to the calf that fractured the bones within.

"Can't chat now, Desmond!" the Doctor snapped crossly, as if this were some trifling annoyance. "I'm rather busy at the moment."

"Really?" Desmond shot back. "I thought this would be a _great_ time to get to know each other better. Maybe kick back a few beers."

He dangled the access pen in front of the other man's nose and all of the Doctor's petulant animosity evaporated in an instant.

"Splendid!" 

The pen disappeared from Desmond's hands in the blink of an eye.

"We're in!" crowed the Doctor, pounding the assassin joyfully on the back.  His hands flew impossibly fast over the touch screen. "There!  Just bring the Animi online once the temporal inharmonic is activated and we're done here."

"My goodness!"  A voice filled with greasy smarm sent a shiver of revulsion up Desmond's spine.  “If I'd known we'd have this many guests, I'd have ordered up some tea and biscuits!"

Warren Vidic emerged just yards from where they stood, sporting a spectacular bruise underneath his beard that took an unintended edge off of his snide comment.

 The Doctor didn't bother looking up from the monitor. "As lovely as that sounds I'm afraid we won't be staying long."

Vidic was more conciliatory this time. "Step away from the computer, Doctor. Or we'll be forced to do something unpleasant to your colleagues."

The crude threat had a boyish face turn ancient as the Doctor finally focused all of his attention on the Templar. 

Two guards appeared by some silent command, dragging along unwilling burdens. 

Leonardo was propped up by one guard, blue eyes having difficulty focusing, hair matted to the blood from the gash on his scalp.

The other guard had the task of trying to contain Amy, fierce redhead doing her best to hide her fear.

"They _are_ your colleagues, I'm assuming," said Vidic with idle curiosity. "I'd hate to have them killed for no reason."

"You are not to harm them!" the Doctor barked, full of authority.

"Or what?" Vidic laughed.  More Templar guards joined them. "You're in no position to make demands.  Step.  Away.  From.  The computer.  I won't repeat myself again."

“Don’t do this,” the Doctor tried once more.  “You don't understand how much danger you’re in!”

“Really?  I think I do!  
"  Vidic sauntered forward, his ego leading the way.

"  
The Oncoming Storm. Ka Faraq Gatri. Destroyer of Worlds.   
No matter what name you go by we know how dangerous you are, Doctor. And I think we have you in a bind."

Desmond felt the Templar’s sneer suddenly turn on him.  "Oh, and thanks for returning our stray, by the way.  He’s got a pesky habit of slipping his leash.”

The Doctor slipped his hands into his pockets, sighing with the sadness of one who had seen events such as this far too many times as the guards closed in. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”  A hint of apology peeked through as he looked to Desmond as if to speak, full lips moving almost imperceptibly to shape a word instead.

 _  
Run  
_  
.

Run?  What did he mean by –

Desmond couldn’t see what the Doctor’s fingers were doing but the wave of nausea that hit him told him the not-can-of-air-freshener had gone live.  “Fuck!”  

The nearest Templar doubled over with a moan at the flood of invisible energy.  Using the man’s back as a springboard, Desmond launched himself upwards to the relative refuge of the cubicle walls, desperate to put some distance between himself and the flood of artron radiation.

Sickened and weak, guard after guard surrounding them fell to the wayside as the Doctor turned back to the central computer. 

“What?!” Vidic was sputtering in incredulity, too distant to feel the radiation’s effects. “What are you doing?” 

A strangled scream came from the guard restraining Leonardo and the man fell to the ground writhing under the wrath of a furious Assassin. 

Shaun followed Ezio’s lead, smashing into the Templar holding Amy and the fight was begun.

“Stop them!” Vidic screamed. “Stop them all!”

Desmond took a breathless pause before he moved to join the fray. One Templar that kept just out of reach of the effects of the temporal inharmoic caught his eye. 

Goddamn taser.  That thing could fire what- fifteen, twenty feet?  Well out of range of the wave of sickness that kept the other guards at bay.

But within striking distance of the Doctor.

He pounced, bringing the man down, but that didn’t stop the Templar opposite them both from firing an electrode at the Doctor.

The probe hit the lanky man in the back and he shrugged off the volts pumping into him as if it were a bee sting, continuing his work to bring the Animi online.

Desmond swung and kicked and stabbed, trying to get the Doctor more time to act, but it was like battling the tide, being dragged by the undertow.

The Doctor let out a small gasp as a second probe hit him in the thigh, both electrodes trying to short circuit his body. “No!” he yelled in no small amount of desperation. How the fuck was he still standing?  “I ha… have to stop this!”  The Doctor took a misstep, looking like some twisted marionette with taser wires trailing from his body.  Hands trembling, real, honest panic in his voice as his words forced their way past his lips.  “You must… let me… stop this!”

A third probe hit him just under the clavicle. 

So naturally pale already, the Doctor was near translucent as blood drained from his face.  The shake spread to the rest of him, angular face twisted in pain.

 The man- the _being_ \- the universe knew as its champion looked every bit of his thousand years before he collapsed to the ground in a lifeless heap.

“Doctor!” Amy’s horror pierced through the raucous noise of battle though the Templars took no notice.  She was near tears, struggling to drag Leonardo’s barely conscious self out of harm’s way.

Desmond looked at the limp form of the Doctor, groaning Templars still littering the ground around him.  Was he even breathing? 

Ezio struck and parried again and again, blade handled with near surgical precision to defend the girl and man collapsed at his feet.  Shaun was at his back, doing heavy damage with both yantok on every swing.

The urge to protect, to fight was near overwhelming but Desmond knew what he had to do. 

With a growl, he charged into the field of radiation.  He was grateful to only feel the nausea, nowhere near as debilitated as the writhing Templars around him.  Digging through the Doctor’s endless pockets, he found the not-air-freshener.

Desmond had it in his hands, moving to stand in front of the Animus controls that so patiently waited for a command and good god a sharp pain was in his head, like a fresh scab being ripped open. A rush of heat shooting through him and then-

 _  
The sun over Jerusalem only adds to his exhaustion as he stumbles through the bureau's doorway. He knows he will find assistance, unable as he is to staunch the flow from his newest wound.  Malik’s usual scowl doesn’t waver but neither does he hesitate to catch this unannounced guest who can no longer remain standing…  
_

With a growl, Desmond threw a fist into the equipment bank, pain forcing him to keep focused. 

Come on.  The welcome screen blinked at him.  It looked similar enough to the Animus that he should know how to power this up.  If he could just think for one god damned second…

 _  
The world is suddenly much bigger.  He lets out a yell as he is lifted off his feet by a single, strong arm.  Squirming and kicking, his younger brother is doing the same but the boy had his small arms wrapped around the neck of their captor.  
_

 _  
He can see a greyer, more mature Altaïr watching these antics with bemusement, directing a teasing question not at himself but rather the man that the boys cling to like leeches. “In need of rescuing?”  
_

 _  
“They are no problem,” Malik answers dismissively as he hefts his burden to squeals of delight. “Nothing like their nuisance of a father.”  
_

Skin tore open this time as the bite of metal against the back of his hand got Desmond to clear his head.    Initializing…. Come _on_. 

Around him the Animi began to hum.  Hot spike of pain in his head forced him to stumble, catching himself on equipment he so desperately tries to operate.  A badly timed taser electrode passes him by inches.

Desmond felt his pulse hammering a frantic beat inside his skull, bloody fingerprints he was leaving on the monitor failing to register with him at all. 

 _  
He tries not to cry though his arm hurts terribly.  It frightens him to see the bones shifted at an unnatural angle just underneath his skin.  The pain is made worse by the worry that his father will be furious at having snuck out  
_  
 _past his bed time_ _only to fail so miserably._

 _  
“So brave, my bambino,” his father says, easing his son’s small frame onto the couch as if he were the lightest of feathers. “The dottore will be here shortly. Do not worry- young boys mend quickly. You’ll be terrorizing the neighborhood again soon enough.”  
_

 _  
“You are not angry?” he sniffles, trying to not be obvious as he wipes his nose with his sleeve.  
_

 _  
“Oh, Giovanni,” his father sighs with a smile that is half pride, half sadness.  “Of course not. But next time, let me show you how to perform the leap of faith properly first, hmm?”  
_

 _  
The kiss to his forehead brings about a flood of relief  
_   
_  
.  
_

Finally, finally the chain of machines began to light up with their familiar blue light.  The device in Desmond's hand hummed in response and he felt it tug, flying from his fingers to float above his head under its own power.

Was that it?  Was it working? 

Generation after generation of memories swamped his mind. 

 _  
\- pushing, pushing with the contraction, the urge to bear down irresistible even though exhaustion fatigued every muscle, ignoring the pain of childbirth because she would have this child no matter what, a flood of joy at the shockingly loud cry of her new born son-  
_

Desmond tried to move, tried to breath. I'm Desmond Miles, he thought frantically trying to cling to that.

A terrible grinding noise began to build, light from the Animi turning pure white.

 _  
-"Fanciful rubbish, Akhom," grouched Nebibi.  "Your plaything will never take the place of a good, simple bow. Too difficult to make.  Too expensive."  
_

 _  
"And we can strike at the pharoah from twice the distance," he laughed, continuing to wrap his bow in birch bark.  "New ways are not to be feared old man, but embraced!"-  
_

The acrid smell of burning plastic filled his nostrils.

I'm Desmond.

I'm...

I...

The room was suddenly a cluster of sparks, a series of explosions that had people running for cover and then

everything

went

black.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath in Abstergo

Shaun stood alone, trying not to choke but the smoke that filled the room was cloying and thick; rank with a foul stink that burned the back of his throat. Looking up, it was if the world had changed around him.

 

Once austere and white and clinical, now all black and scarred and demolished. There were still shouts in the distance, alarms going off, the sounds of extinguishers being emptied in the background as the Templars tried uselessly to salvage what they could from the devastation.

 

Where were the others? They needed to get out of here.

 

Left with little choice, he called into the darkness. "Is everyone all right?" A wave of his hands did little to clear the air. He dodged sparks raining down from damaged light fixtures overhead as he searched for signs of life. "Desmond?” he called. “Doctor?” The lack of response had him nearly worked up into a frenzy. “Anybody?"

 

"Here! We're here!"

 

The anguish in Amy’s voice was more than enough to get him sprinting in the direction from which it came. He very nearly stumbled over her, just narrowly avoiding treading on an outstretched hand that lay pale and limp on the floor.

 

A hand that belonged to the Doctor.

 

The mercurial man was motionless, still sprawled out precisely where he had fallen.

 

“I don't think he's breathing,” Amy sobbed, tears streaking trails through the soot that marked her face.

 

Shaun watched her press her ear to the man's chest, first on one side of his sternum, then the other. He was no anatomist but what in the holy hell was she doing?

 

“You greedy alien bastard!” the girl yelled as she tore at the unconscious man's jacket. She placed her palms over the singed skin the taser probe had created just under his collar bone. “Why can't you manage with just one heart like everyone else?” Her chest compressions came swift and hard, curses punctuating her movements.

 

The crunch of debris being crushed underfoot had Shaun turning, ready to defend, still not quite sure how he managed to hold on to either yantok in all the madness.

 

“At ease.” Ezio’s deep chested rumble brought with it a wave of relief and a second wave with it when it was clear he was not alone. The Italian moved closer, taking infinite care in bringing with him an injured Leonardo who still had a hand at the other man’s shoulder for balance.

 

“We must move him,” Ezio warned Amy as she paused in her efforts to listen again for a heartbeat. “We cannot stay here.”

 

Leonardo spoke up, surprising them all. “A moment, please. I believe I have seen this before.”

 

The artist was a disheveled mess, gingerly lowering himself to the Doctor’s side with dried blood standing out sharply against his pale forehead.

 

“Doctor,” Leonardo whispered softly to the prone man. “Time for you to awaken, my friend.”

 

Amy wiped at her tears with her sleeve, watching the man with more than a hint of worry. “Are…are you feeling all right?”

 

“You force me to take drastic measures,” the artist sighed, ignoring the girl completely. “Remember when we first met? In Milano it was. On the eve of Il Moro’s wedding. You… attracted the attention of one of his archers. Does your companion need to hear the story of precisely what occurred to prompt the archer to shoot you in the-“

 

The Doctor sat up sharply, startling them all as if he were a corpse come back to life. He gasped for air where there was little to be had.

 

“Sorry…about that,” the revived man said deep within the midst of a hacking fit. “Fellow with that dreadful taser thing…managed a lucky shot. Stopped one of my hearts.” He absently rubbed at the burn marks on his chest. “Needed to get to a suspended state to decrease my tissue conductivity. The reboot seems to have done the trick.” He blinked wearily through the smoke, finally noticing the twisted lumps of metal around him.

 

“Goodness.” His voice turned thin and reedy. “What did I miss?”

 

“You!” Amy hissed, red-faced in her fury. “You idiot! You scared me!”

 

She began swatting him, slapping at him like an infuriated housecat, forcing himself to shield himself with an upraised arm.

 

“Ow! Ow! Are you mad, woma-“ That was all the Doctor managed to say before she threw herself at him, offering a great big hug as her tears started anew. He made all sorts of cooing noises as he hugged her right back. “Shh, shh. You worry too much,” he said burying a smile into her hair. “I’m fine, you’re fine, everyone is…”

 

The Doctor staggered to his feet, unceremoniously dumping his distraught companion to the floor. “Where’s Desmond?’ he demanded. “Was he the one to activate the temporal inharmonic?”

 

He limped forward, moving as if every muscle were tied up in knots. “We must find- oh…” There was no way for him to hide the spasm that rippled through his body.

 

“You are injured and will do nothing of the sort,” Ezio shot back. “We will find Desmond.”

 

Steadfastly gnoring the Doctor’s sulking, Ezio let his eyes become purest gold as he surveyed the area, eagle vision turning them into beacons in the darkness. At a distance, one could dismiss it as a trick of the light, an illusion. Up close it felt probing, piercing; looking through the smoke as if it had never been there.

 

As if given the chance he could see into the darkest parts of your soul.

 

The thought alone made a chill shoot up Shaun’s spine.

 

“Strange.” Eyes turned human again. “He is close yet he does not join us.”

 

Shaun couldn’t hold himself back any longer. “He’s not hurt is he?”

 

Ezio wet his lips with his tongue as he pondered the question. “He does not appear to be.”

 

He pointed the way with a gloved hand. “Go to him. I will begin to lead the others from this awful place. With injuries it will be slow going but we will mark our way.” Turning to Shaun, he laid a strong hand on the Englishman’s shoulder. “Rejoin us swiftly. The Templars regroup even now and I will need the help from both of you.”

 

Shaun nodded mutely, hoping he could share Ezio’s confidence. He took off in the direction he’d been shown, weaving through the wreckage as he heard shouts in the distance.

 

“They must still be in the building!”

 

“Are we to take them alive?”

 

“If we can.”

 

Fuck.

 

Where was that stupid bastard? Running off like an idiot. Didn’t he think that anyone would be worried about him? Especially after how the Doctor reacted to the idea that Desmond had set off the temporal thing-

 

A flash of white up ahead had his heart racing and his feet quickly following.

 

“There you are, you tosser!” he said, his relief profound at the sight of Desmond’s hoodie. “We have to get out of here!”

 

Desmond failed to respond. His back was to Shaun, caught up in examining the blade on his forearm as if were some alien parasite attached to his skin. The man flexed his wrist and the snick of metal on metal as the blade revealed itself caused a small start of surprise.

 

Shaun came closer, flush with worry all over again. ”What’s wrong?”

 

The blade continued to monopolize Desmond’s attention. “I am not sure.”

 

This answer –so rigid, too formal- already had skin prickling in alarm. It was then that Shaun noticed the difference in posture, the apprehensive stance. None of the familiar slouch, the usual jeans-and-t-shirt air as Desmond turned to him.

 

Good god.

 

He’d never witnessed Desmond using his eagle vision first hand before. Too busy with his own work for Shaun to have seen any of Desmond’s abilities being used in the real world. The golden glow, the glittering light pouring out of those eyes- beautiful yes, but there was something different from how it had been with Ezio.

 

It was worse.

 

Someone was looking through him. Pinning him down and peeling him open to look inside.

 

Animal instinct urged Shaun to run but there was no fucking way that was going to happen. Not when it was Desmond. Not now, no matter how much the look of him, the feel of him, was wrong.

 

And it was, wasn’t it? All wrong.

 

Even though his subconscious knew the answer, he had to ask: “Desmond?”

 

The name alone seemed to trigger an avalanche.

 

A small shake began with Desmond’s brow crumpling under the weight crushing press of pain and anguish. That scar trembled as full mouth struggled to form words. “Sh..Shaun? I… I can’t… Can’t-”

 

Then as quickly as it started, this too was gone and the body language was just off all over again. Wound up too tight, too fearful and ready to lash out.

 

“Who are you?” Desmond demanded, full of suspicion.

 

No.

 

Not Desmond.

 

Voices rang out, far too close in the smoke and darkness.

 

“Sir! They’re on the move!”

 

“Teams 1 and 2 are to mobilize and contain! Teams 3 and 4 will prevent breach of the repository at all costs!”

 

Repository?

 

Now what in the ever-loving-fucking-hell was that?

 

No time to think. Not safe to think out here. Not with… with Desmond-

 

A gut twisting sense of loss threatened to overwhelm him.

 

No. He mustn’t think like that. Whatever the temporal inharmonic had done, Desmond was still in there; trapped inside.

 

“We are in terrible danger here,” Shaun said softly, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice. “Please. We need to keep moving.”

 

Whatever had taken Desmond over cocked his head, studying him for a few interminably long seconds as if Shaun was the one who couldn’t be trusted.

 

“You are not bound by their influence,” was the cryptic analysis, but the quirk of a painfully familiar smile was profoundly welcome. “That is good.”

 

“I hope so,” Shaun sighed wearily in return.

 

He led the way, backtracking to where he had separated from the others, forced to check behind him more than once. It wasn’t just his innate paranoia requiring him to make sure that he was being followed. No, it was more the way the man moved that forced Shaun to look back again and again.

 

Completely silent as he navigated through the wreckage even though he was constantly on in motion; using Desmond’s body with a proficiency that even Desmond had never managed.

 

Who was this? So many generations in Desmond’s past. Adept at stealth but no familiarity with the hidden blade. Not Ezio then- his blade and training had come all at once. Possibly a young Altaïr? No. He’d grown up around the blade that it should have been more than familiar.

 

It was only when Shaun realized he was standing where the Doctor had fallen that he kicked himself out of his own musings. There was no sign of Ezio and the others. The exit was close but the corridor branched from there. Which way would they have gone? A trail. Ezio had said they’d leave a trail…

 

“I know this,” he heard Desmond say.

 

The man had dropped to his haunches to one side of the exit. Hands placed flat against the wall; there was something there that held his fascination.

 

Looking over his shoulder, Shaun could just make out the faint markings on the wall that enthralled Desmond so.

 

It was a tiny lion holding an arrow in its left paw, all of it surrounded by flames had been sketched hastily over the painted surface.

 

Shaun permitted himself a dry laugh. A burning lion. Lion arde. Of course the artist wouldn’t have been able to resist leaving his mark. Using a child’s crayon no less. That must have been the Doctor’s contribution.

 

A low moan came from Desmond as the image set him rocking on his heels. Fingers dug at his skull as if he was desperate to claw inside. “I have seen this before yet I know I have not. Thoughts that are not my own… Voices…Too many…”

 

Without thinking, Shaun swept the man up and clasped him to his chest. Desmond collapsed into it willingly, his sobs wringing them both dry.

 

The beam of a flashlight caught Shaun’s eye. “We have to keep moving,” he whispered.

 

Desmond nodded haltingly into his shoulder.

 

Please. Please let the Doctor fix this.

 

Shaun led him, Desmond following numbly like an automaton. The Englishman took one last glance at the Animus graveyard, desperately hoping that the blow to the Templars wrought here had not come at too high a cost.

 

The two men made their way through the belly of Abstergo, the pictograms left behind guiding their way. One turn was shown as an eagle with its beak to the right. A bowtie was left on a door that was meant to be passed through.

 

After a while, it was signs of battle that marked their path. Specks of blood. Bodies of unconscious Templars that their comrades were too engaged to attend to.

 

Another stretch of endless corridor and Desmond dropped into a fighting stance. “There are sounds of battle.”

 

“Really?” Shaun strained to listen, yantok at the ready. If there was any activity going on up ahead, he could hear none of it. They followed the length of it, turning one corner then another. It was only then that Shaun heard anything at all.

 

“Behind you!” was Leonardo’s muted shout. There was a feminine squeak then a not so feminine grunt that was undoubtedly Amy’s before she proudly answered “Got ‘em!”

 

Shaun was bolting towards the cacophony, grateful to see that Desmond was following just a step behind.

 

They ran head first into mayhem.

 

Templars- at least a dozen of them if not more- were packed into the narrow corridor. The Doctor continued his dance of timing, allowing the guards to eliminate each other one by one. At some point, Amy had acquired a baton and was swinging it with poorly aimed gusto, leaving Leonardo doing his best to offer guidance as he kept out of her way. With a fresh gash bleeding at his shoulder, Ezio was still doing his damndest holding his own against overwhelming numbers.

 

With that, Shaun joined the fray. Bashing, battering, breaking. Desmond was at his side, dispatching Templars with cool efficiency.

 

The tides turned against the guards when the two engaged in the fight. Shaun spotted one of the Templars slip away, using another guard as a shield. “Sir, Team 2 is taking heavy losses in sector twelve!” the man shouted desperately into his radio. “Request backup!”

 

“Denied! All units fall back to the repository!” came the staticky reply.

 

The repository.

 

There was that word again.

 

It was only when Shaun caught motion out of the corner of his eye that he cursed himself for getting distracted in a fight.

 

The side of his head exploded in a world of pain, a hard blow getting under his guard. He tried to backpedal away, create some distance to shake off the stars blinding his eyes, but he was hit once, twice, a third time in rapid succession.

 

In the confusion, an errant body on the floor tripped him, putting him on his back- quite possibly the absolute worst position to be in precisely at that moment. A heavily booted foot came down at him with no time, no room to react- trapped as he was between fallen Templars. The stomping would break some ribs surely, he thought. Ruptured spleen. Whatever happened, it wouldn’t be pretty.

 

A rough cry of “No!” and the booted foot and the body it was attached to were gone. Desmond looked near feral in his rage, flinging the man aside like a ragdoll.

 

If the order to retreat hadn’t been enough, the sight of a man that looked ready to tear them limb from limb had the Templars running like rabbits.

 

Amy cheered as their enemies fled, catching up Leonardo in a warm hug. Finally able to catch his breath, Ezio slumped against the wall to offer them an exhausted smile at their antics.

 

The Doctor broke into a huge smile. “Desmond! Pleased as punch to….see… you-”

His voice trailed off to nowhere as he came closer, face falling in sorrow once he had a better look. “Oh my dear boy.”

 

With his entire body trembling, Desmond was as white as a ghost.

 

Shaun struggled to get to his feet, desperate to get to the man and do something –anything- to help. Someone got to him first, Desmond hauling him upright by fistfuls of his jumper to knock the wind out of him to pin the Englishman to the wall.

 

“It’s strong. Too strong.”

 

Shaun’s heart shoved its way into his throat certain that was Desmond –truly Desmond- whispering into his ear.

 

“Hard …to control.” Desmond struggled to breath, cradling the other man’s face between his hands.

 

The feel of the kiss was as shocking as it was welcome. Lips and tongue and teeth tried to convey every last bit of feeling, every sensation, the whole fucking world of emotion poured into it and Shaun welcomed it.

 

Fear. Hope. Pain. Passion. Desperation. Tenderness.

 

For a few brief seconds they shared it all.

 

A heartbeat later it was gone.

 

It hurt, good god it hurt to see Desmond’s face shutter closed.

 

Don’t. Don’t go. Fight, you bastard. I know you can do that.

 

But when those eyes opened again, someone else was behind them.

 

Shaun tried not to flinch when a flick of the wrist brought the hidden blade to his throat.

 

“What have you done to me?” the man inside Desmond wailed, blade quaking against Shaun’s unprotected skin.

 

“Desmond.” The Doctor spoke softly, slowly, inching forward as he did. “Put the blade down.”

 

“My name is not Desmond!” snarled this frightened creature.

 

The Doctor held out his hands in supplication. “Sorry, sorry,” he apologized, as if he should have known this all along. “Something is terribly wrong but for me to fix it I need you to trust me.”

 

“Trust! What do you know of trust?” was what was spat back. “You who look like one of the First but I know you are not! And you! Keep back!”

 

The last was directed at Ezio who used his own stealth to draw nearer. “How is it that you reek of the Apple? I will not allow you to harm Eve or the others that we have freed. We will not be enslaved again!”

 

Shaun stiffened at this information, uncaring that his tension caused the blade to nick his skin. No. No way could this be-

 

“I’m sorry, old chap but I think you have us confused with someone else. For starters, I’m the Doctor,” said the bow-tied man congenially enough. “And that’s rather large man behind you is Ezio.” His tone was what one would use to calm a spooked horse. “Why don’t you tell me your name?”

 

“My name?” The laugh that came was full of scorn, something that would never have normally come from that mouth. “We had no names when we were slaves.”

 

The man looked at them one by one, full of defiance. “Now… now I am known as Adam.”


	10. Chapter 10

For Shaun, everything had disappeared, a thick haze coalescing around his consciousness.

He was not pinned to the wall in a hallway deep in the heart of the most dangerous of dangerous places.

There was no incredible assemblage of people surrounding him, concern plain on their startled faces.

The blade pricking the skin at his throat was nothing.

There was only this man –fearful, confused, shaking in desperation- that pinned him in place.There was only the feel of a body pressed against him, a body that belonged to someone else.

He ached to even think of it.

None of the others would know how impossible this all was.To them, Desmond had simply become someone else without understanding the implications. How could they?They hadn’t seen the truth that had been hidden in Subject Sixteen’s insane ramblings.

The Truth!A secret of biblical proportions.Shaun had never expected in his life to use the expression quite so literally. Adam, Eve, the Apple.The Fall of Man was no fall from grace, but two people throwing off the yoke of an ancient race by making off with an instrument of their enslavement.Harsh reality muddled by a story of antiquity.

It was enough to send a whole army of theologians off to gibber in a corner.

And Desmond.What of Desmond?

“Goodness!”The Doctor’s bright voice pierced through the fog that clouded Shaun’s thoughts.The impending threat of violence didn’t seem to bother the odd man one little bit.“I’m afraid you’re going to have to be a little more specific, dear boy,” he continued, all bemused smiles and affability.“When you’ve been around as long as I have you wind up meeting quite a lot of Adams.”He began ticking off on his fingers.“Adam Smith, the Adam mountain range. There’s Prince Adam Czartoryski- lovely chaps, both of them!”

Shaun sagged against the wall at his back, too floored by the wild ramblings to notice the weapon at his jugular begin to slip. “Doctor, I don’t think-“

“There’s the town in Oman.”The list continued at a frenzied pace.“The Adam family- Scottish architects not the one with the hirsute cousin.”

“Really, you might want to-“ Shaun tried again, his irritation surging, drowning out any notice that the body pressed against him was nowhere near as tense,no longer on guard.

“And if you can believe it an entire planet whose inhabitants look an awful lot like seven foot tall pink hedgehogs with this fuzzy little _thing_ -“ Hands fluttered in demonstration. “On the tops of their heads who for reasons known only to themselves all go by the name ‘Adam’.”

Here the Doctor finally faltered, looking immediately apologetic. “Now… now I’m not saying you look _anything_ like a seven foot tall pink hedgehog with a fuzzy little thing on the top of your head, but you can understand where the possibility of confusion might arise-“

“Doctor!”Shaun finally snapped, stepping forward before he could even process that nothing preventing him from doing so.He spun in a wild surprise, heart racing so hard it felt as if it might burst.

“Mad,” whispered Adam, hopelessly lost by the Doctor’s inane chatter, looking far too weary and forlorn as the blade quietly sheathed itself away.“He’s completely mad.”

At this the Doctor turned beet red.“Why does everyone keep saying that?”He turned to his audience, full of fury.“I most certainly am not! Tell him, Pond!”

Amy let out a nervous laugh with an “I…uh…well-“Leonardo beside her was no help at all as he made a show of finding some invisible something on his sleeve so fascinating as to require all of his attention.

“Fine!” The Doctor was all indignation at this flustering.“Let’s see if I take you anywhere fun the next time either of you want to go on holiday!”

He surveyed them all with his offended chin stuck high in the air before leveling an accusatory finger directly at Ezio.The Italian arched an eyebrow, looking more than eager to clarify any rumors regarding the Doctor’s sanity.

“And you can keep quiet, Messere Fancy Assassin!You think you’re _sooo_ cool!You don’t even have a _hat_!”

“DOCTOR!” roared Shaun, hands clenched with murderous intent as the Doctor approached.“Will you just. Shut. UP?”

Well. That got everyone’s attention. What would he tell them? What _should_ he tell them?

Leonardo was watching him with keen interest.

The explosive truth had been locked away in Desmond’s memories, discovered just before all this time travel business began. Could history unravel if the secret was revealed to the Italians five hundred years too soon?

He couldn’t take that chance.Not when everything else was ready to unravel right now.

“There are no mountains or towns or fuzzy hedgehogs,” Shaun whispered, low enough so only those closest could hear. “He is Adam.The first man.”

The words flipped a switch. “The _first_ Adam?”The Doctor echoed softly, now alight with curiosity.“You can’t possibly mean….”

Tight lipped and grim, Shaun refused to answer.

“No!” The Doctor laughed, dancing as close to the two men as he dared.“No. No. No.That’s just a story. A metaphor! No!Nononono- really?” He trailed off as Adam stood resolute, facing down this inspection and for the first time, the Doctor showed some doubt.“You’re sure of this?”

Shaun nodded. “There was a memory. Subject Sixteen made sure that only one person could ever find it.“ Had to look away. Couldn’t look at Adam, just for a moment. “And he found it.”

“Oi!” came the bellow from Amy. “What are you old maids gossiping about over there?”

“Ready to chat _now_ are we?” the Doctor shot back.He ignored her pout, turning to the men before him.“I like to think I’m the sort who likes to keep himself in the know and somehow I’ve managed to miss this little detail.” His focus narrowed inward. “Though I’m a fool, for it seems obvious now.The basis of it all comes from the First Civilization.Of course Those Who Came Before would paint their enslavement of humanity as a type of Eden.You and Eve escaping with Apple brought that all crashing down.”

Shaking his head, Adam stood half agape. “Who are you?”

The Doctor was already beyond the question. His hushed words blasted out of him in a torrential downpour, flying at them fast and furious.“All of this is too important, too much of a coincidence.Too many chance events, too much happenstance had to all align perfectly for you to be here at this very moment. We did what we set out to do yet you still came. Not any of a thousand others of possible ancestors that it could have been but _you_. What did I miss? Why you? Why here?Why now?”

Adam was slow to answer. “I do not know. All I held certain is no longer what I knew it to be. But if there is danger, I will do anything that needs to be done.”

“Nothing is true.”Ezio’s low rumble from inches away startled them all.“Everything is permitted.”

“Where… How do you _do_ that?”Smoothing his blazer back over his braces, the Doctor made no effort to mask his annoyance at the Italian’s stealth. “You’d think you’d be making all sorts of jangly-squeaky noises in that getup!”

This bait was not enough to deter Ezio.“We are in this together. There should be no secrets.”

The Doctor’s lighthearted manner crumpled as if this had been a physical blow. “Knowledge is not always a good thing. What if there was information that would shatter your entire world but was impossible for you to act on?” He stole a guilty glance at his companion, who was too busy pretending she wanted nothing to do with him to notice.“Like knowing precisely when someone you care about is supposed to die.Or that the love of your life vanished as if he never existed.Would you want to know?”

Ezio couldn’t resist looking to Leonardo at the question. “Your point is made, but I don’t have to like it,” he bit off in anger.“I don’t like _any_ of this!”His voice rang out, his temper given free rein. “One of our own risks his life and comes back a man possessed yet you sit here and talk as if this were the most normal thing in the world!Did you forget about him or is he just another pawn in your game?”

The illusion of youth gave way. “No.” The Doctor looked every one of his years.“I haven’t forgotten Desmond.”

Adam went deathly pale. “That name. I hear him…Desmond.”He teetered precariously and Shaun was there to steady him.

“I’m… He is here,” panted the man who wasn’t Desmond, desperate for air. “I know this is not my place.”He latched on to Shaun, grip astonishingly strong. “I would give him back to you if I knew how.”

The words were both a relief and brutal to hear. “Doctor,” Shaun began weakly. “You helped him before. Surely you can help him again.”

“I don’t know.”This admission lashed out, leaving a bitter sting.“This is different.”

“Different how?” asked Leonardo, following Amy to join the others.“The disturbance you created to destroy the Templars’ machines.It created the same energy that sickened him before, did it not?”

“Yes,” the Doctor replied. “But the TARDIS is a maternal old thing.She made sure Desmond would be able to withstand another large artron exposure.” His cheeks puffed out in frustration. “And Adam has completely supplanted Desmond's personality. Activating the temporal inharmonic wasn’t safe but it wouldn’t have done anything like this to him. Not by itself at any rate.”

“Maybe there's more of those Animus thingies someplace else,” suggested Amy, forgiving the Doctor his slight.

“The guards were told to retreat to a repository,” added Leonardo.“Might there not be something of importance there?”

Shaun nodded, heart racing at this newfound hope.“There was mention of it again before we rejoined you.They broadcast orders to defend the repository at all costs.”

Ezio threw a punch into the palm of his hand.“With superior numbers, the Templars of the past would not have fallen back unless ordered to do so.By all rights we should be battling Abstergo still.”Finally, he permitted himself a brilliant smile.“Doctor, I think you will find your answer in this repository.”

“Wonderful!” the Doctor exclaimed, sudden grin twisting into a knot of worry. “Now let’s just hope that before we get there I can figure out my question.”


	11. Chapter 11

Yet another corridor stretched out before them, just as austere and ominous as the last. The lack of resistance while deep in the heart of Absertgo had them all on edge. Wall after wall of featureless gray steel had become monotonous, repetitive.

Perhaps too repetitive.

"Doctor-" Leonardo paused, permitting the Doctor to blithely barrel on ahead. "I believe we've have been down this way before."

“We're nearly there, I'm sure of it!” The Doctor threw a summoning hand in the air, not even breaking stride. “Don't worry, old chap. After running through these things a while they all look the same but you'll get used to it after a few decades. Now come along! Time’s a wasting!”

The rest of their party fell into place at Leonardo’s side, the artist resolutely rooted to the spot.

“Permit me to rephrase that,” he called out to the Doctor’s oblivious back. “We most assuredly have been down this way before.”

The angular man finally came to a halt but only because he’d run out of corridor. "No!" he countered boldly, contemplating which way to turn. This confidence faltered when it sank in that not a single person followed. “You sure?”

“Quite sure.” A hint of amusement danced at the edge of Leonardo’s lips as he ruched up his shirtsleeve. His bared forearm held a clean set of inked lines and intersections that marked their path. “Not the best canvas but I thought it wise to track our path when we passed through here the third time.”

“Third time!” The Doctor had little issue shoving others out of his way to examine the improvised map. “Rubbish! I know when we made that left-”

"I knew it!" Amy crossed her arms across her chest, throwing up a giant flag of annoyance. "We're lost!"

Sparing the tiniest of milliseconds to give her a heated look, the Doctor returned to study the canvas of pale skin. "Bite your tongue! This tells me exactly where we are!”

Leonardo gently extricated his arm from the Doctor’s grasp. “And where would that be?”

“We are…” The Doctor was a flurry of coat tails as he spun, wetting a finger to test the air. “We… are…” Stopping on a dime, he radiated the despondency of a child who'd dropped their ice cream cone. “We are lost!”

This was much less surprising than it should have been.

“Fucking fantastic.” Shaun tried to knead away the headache he knew would be forthcoming. “And how would you suggest we become un-lost?”

The Doctor was already too wrapped up in his own conversation to notice. “I knew we should have turned left two rights and a left ago! Or was that a right two lefts and a right ago?”

Adam kept a cautious distance from them all. “So you have no idea where you are going. Why did you not simply follow their trail?”

The question burst through the Doctor's musings, curiosity burning brightly enough that he could have spontaneously combust. “Trails? What trails?”

“Their path,” Adam answered warily, testing for some sort of trick. “The trail that all things leave.” His confusion unfurled at the blank stare he got in return. “You don’t have the sight.” Adam sounded vaguely disappointed. “So you truly are not one of the First?”

Before Adam could finish his thought, Ezio managed to latch onto one word. “The sight. You see your enemies revealed. As well as places to take safe harbor.”

A hesitant smile made Desmond appear before them for the briefest of moments. “Yes. You know of it.”

Then with no words spoken, the two men underwent a transformation as one. Eyes lighting up in a golden glow that was otherworldly, they searched together.

“We both have the gift.” Ezio drew closer. They were pressed for time but the possibilities were far too tantalizing.“But you say you can do more. How?”

“There is more challenge in it than I first suggest.” Adam encouraged the other man to his side to stand shoulder to shoulder, looking too much like brothers with eyes shining like the sun. “Each choice a person makes reveals their intent, shapes our view of them. Our ability permits us to do this in an instant, coloring those we meet as friend or foe.”

This did little to unravel the snarl in Ezio's confusion. “But to see where they've been, even after they're long gone...”

“Why not?” Adam countered smoothly. “Everything that moves through this world no matter how insignificant leaves marks of its passing.”

“Please. Show me,” Ezio demanded, urgently searching the other man's face. “I have yet to meet others who share this gift except-” His voice turned to gravel. “Those whose knowledge died with them.”

Wounds long healed were freshly bleeding from that confession. Adam began his lesson in tender sympathy. “Just as in all things, to see more, one needs focus.” Clarity. The traces of those you seek can reveal themselves in small ways, leaving a mark as if they travel the sands after a hard day’s rain.”

Gritting his teeth, Ezio searched and searched. “I… I don’t…”

“No.” The rebuke was gentle, kind. “Can you force yourself to taste sweeter than sweet? This is a part of you. Feel it in your bones.”

His frustration weighted him down and Ezio struggled to shake it off. A soothing hand at his shoulders brought with it echoes of his father and-

Finally, there was a glimmer. A ghost moving out of the corner of the eye.

Pulse hammering away in his ears, Ezio was breathless at the first hint of red, indistinct at first but becoming clearer than clear.

As clear as footprints made upon sand after a hard day’s rain.

Ezio finally let go the breath he was holding. “ _Dio mio! &_rdquo; He fought the urge to sprint, to chase the source of the shadows, afraid they might disappear at any moment. “How is this possible?”

Adam offered a lopsided smile that held no humor in it. “Another gift from the First.”

“Fascinating.” The Doctor pierced the two men with his gaze, more than deadly serious. “It seems the First did more meddling than I first suspected. What other little tricks do you have up your sleeves, hmm?”

The tension was broken as he brought his hands together into a thunderclap and the smile on his face was as warm as ever. “But this means you can get us to the repository. Simply marvelous!”

“Too bad you couldn't admit you were lost fifteen minutes ago!” Even said under her breath, Amy's pointed comment didn't go unnoticed.

"I should have spoken sooner.” Adam's eyes dimmed as he turned to her in all apology. "I thought the Doctor had some method to his-“ He trailed off into nothing, eyes blazing to life once more at the sight of her.

Shaun needed to ask even if he was painfully sure that he already knew the answer. “Is everything all right?”

“I... I do not know.” Adam slowly moved towards the girl, as if trying not to startle the girl. “You. Amy.”

She tried to hid the tremble from his inspection, feeling too much like a bug under glass. “Yeah? I…I mean.. That’s my name. What's it to you?”

“Your other half.” Adam couldn't look away, words colored with horror. “Where is he?”

Stock still, her voice was flat, lifeless. “What?”

“Well, now that that's sorted, we should be on our way!’ the Doctor announced loudly, seizing Adam by the arm and steering him far clear of his stunned companion. “We’ve got to get going on this repository business, now don’t we?”

“What do you mean?” Amy’s paralysis was temporary, shattered as soon as the connection was broken. “Doctor! What does he mean?”

“We were just going to have a little chat about that! Don't you worry!” the Doctor shot over his shoulder, full of false joviality. Once he created some distance between them, that good humor went up in smoke.

“I can only begin to guess what it is you see,” he began with Adam watching him warily. “But she knows none of it. There are forces at work, forces that have written Ror-”

He balked at the name as if it had become a physical blow. “Written what you call her ‘other half’ out of existence. She cannot, must not know any of it. Not now.” The Doctor’s jaw worked hard, as if he himself could not stand the bitter taste of his own words. “Not yet.”

He turned back to her, Adam following his gaze. “Do you understand?”

Amy was staring back at them, fear coming off of her in waves. When Leonardo came up to her with tender words of concern to soothe…

All of her fright, her terror. Gone. All gone. Washed away as if none of it had existed.

She gave the artist a befuddled shake of the head, opening up to him in all playfulness.

Leonardo permitted himself a startled glance at the two men watching the scene unfold, a thousand questions flying behind keen blue eyes.

It was the Doctor who was the first to look away.

Adam let out the breath he was holding. “I do not envy you, Doctor.”

“No one ever does.” The Doctor's warm smile returned, even if it had lost a little of its shine. “Shall we be off? We’re rather late for our appointment.”

The two assassins guided them through their backtracking, following a trail that only they could see.

Leonardo added more ink to the network of lines crisscrossing his forearm with every turn. “If the pattern holds true,” he offered quietly. “the repository won't have more than but one or two means of access.”

“Of course it won't!” the Doctor scoffed. “I think it’s in the contract when you agree to have an ‘evil lair’.”

“I don’t like this,” Shaun added from the rear, making sweep after paranoid sweep for an attack from behind them. “We must be close by now yet we've still seen no one.”

There was a grunt of agreement from Ezio. “They’ve completely gone to ground. The whole thing reeks of a trap.”

“Par for the course, I guess,” Amy sniffed offhand. “What I don't get is that for being the bad guys, they're not very shooty.”

“They want something.” The Doctor continued to storm on ahead, unphased. “Or more specifically 'someone'. Things that are dead tend to be less than cooperative.”

“Desmond.” Shaun's answer was tinged with bitterness. “They want Desmond.”

“Excellent!” the Doctor crowed. “They'll be getting more than they bargained for.”

“So what’s the plan this time, then?” Amy demanded, nearly sprinting to catch up with his pace.

“Plan?” The answer was breezy, light as the wing beat of a butterfly. “The usual. We find the bad guys and we stop them.”

This managed to freeze everyone in their tracks.

“Are you serious?” Shaun was ready to explode. “Wander about until we find the place, ring the door bell and ask if we can come inside? _That's_ your plan?”

The Doctor began to wring his hands. “Well, it usually ends up being more sophisticated then that but…” He tapered off, voice dipping to no more than a whisper. “But that’s usually the gist of it, yes.”

Laughter from Adam was a pleasant surprise. “Doctor, for one so ancient you surely-”

 _KNEW YOU WOULD COME_

Ezio staggered under the wall of emotion thrust into his mind, startled to find Adam and the Doctor doing the same. “What was that?”

It was Leonardo who caught him, arms offering strength and support. “What is it? What has happened?”

 _MUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPMUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPMUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPMUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPMUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPMUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPMUSTSTOPTHISTHISMUSTSTOPHURTS_

“Doctor!” Amy was nearly in tears as she propped the man against a wall, watching him shake and shiver. His hands were pressed to his ears as he tried to shut out the world. “Talk to me!”

Shaun had a shoulder for Adam, whose knees were buckling. "Maybe a psychic attack. Adam!" he demanded of the ashen faced man. " _Desmond!_ Can you hear me?"

The man he held let out a groan from a deep, dark place. "No."

Adam stood a little straighter, fueled by his outrage. “It is here!” he railed at the ceiling, face screwing up in an anguish that threatened to smother him.

“Do you know what it asks of you?” he roared at empty air, words for no one and everyone. He clung to Shaun, quaking fists balling up the man's shirt as his fury transmuted to grief. “It promises power but the price is too great!”

The Doctor was there, determined. “You know what that was. You've seen it before.”

“Tell, me, Doctor.” Adam collected himself in a single deep breath and could have been made of stone but for his tears. “Have you any children? ”

The man who had stared down armies, who had seen entire planets -whole galaxies- destroyed in the blink of an eye turned pale faced at the question. “W...why- That's.... I-”

“Could you forget the thing that took your sons from you?” The question was so softly offered that all had to strain to hear it.

“Cain,” Shaun supplied breathlessly. “Abel.”

The names said aloud made Adam's anguish a physical thing. “I held my child as he bled out his last, cut down by his own brother. How could I forget the Sword of Eden?”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Some descriptions of injuries not for the squeamish. Also there's artwork that I had done for this story by demapples http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/217853981

Bursting at the seams, Shaun was the first to break the silence . “The Sword.”

 

Scraps of knowledge darted at him from all directions and he battled to piece them together. “ Abstergo is holding it somewhere close .”

 

“Another Piece of Eden?” asked Leonardo, blue eyes sharp and bright. “Like the Apple.”

 

“And the Staff,” Ezio added, the line of his back tensing at the word alone.

 

“And Shroud,” was Shaun’s absent confirmation, still caught up on unraveling the tangled snarl in his head . “All of them created by Those Who Came Before. All of them powerful enough to leave their imprint on human mythos.”

 

His fingers cataloged them one by one, his tongue tripping impossibly fast to keep up with the words fighting to get out of his head. “Mind control of the Apple, the Staff was also an amplifier, healing by the Shroud, but the Sword...”

 

He blinked owlishly, looking to Adam as he continued. “ We knew nothing of the Sword’s purpose .”

 

“It only brings misery.” Staring past them all, Adam quietly spoke into the past . “I thought it destroyed. It seems here too I have failed you, my sons.”

 

Amy was in full fluster. “Another bible story, is it? ” Her sidelong glance at the Doctor was not met as he stood there with eyes closed, the twitching muscle hugging the angle of his jaw the only sign that he was alive. “The Sword was supposed to be some great big flaming thing put up to stop others from stealing apples from the Tree of Life.”

 

Adam gave a laugh that was drier than dust. "“Is that what they say? We had the Apple and our freedom but the First wished to re take them both.” His grief was a great lump in his throat and his words worked their way out. “So they set a snare. The Sword was to grant the power they thought would lure us back into the fold- all one would need to hold dominion over our own."

 

The next breath he took left him completely ragged. "But such things always come with a price.”

 

The historian couldn’t help himself. “Sigmund, King Arthur, Attila the Hun!” The names burst from Shaun , one after the other. “All of them great leaders , all of them known to have the Sword , all of their stories ending in tragedy. ”

 

“But its purpose must differ from the Apple ,” Leonardo added, fascination lighting him up from within. "Or  
the Sword would have held no t  
emptation."

 

“One was designed for deception. False visions, false actions. The other…” How ancient Adam looked in a body that was not his own. “The Sword revealed the truth, laying bare past, present and future.”

 

“To Jeanne d’Arc, it was the voice of God,” Shaun murmured, pieces slotting in to place.

 

Knotted up in bitterness, Adam continued. “ I knew better than to put my trust in such a thing! But my sons... ” This time he met each unflinching eye that watched him tell his story. “ They were proud. Foolish. Like all young men, they thought they could triumph over that which shackled their elders. ”

 

 _IT BEGINS IT ENDS_

 

Three men staggered under the frantic wave of urgency thrust upon them.

 

A gaunt Adam forced the wobble from his legs. “He calls to us through the Sword.”

 

Ezio clutched at his head under Leonardo’s steadying hand. “Perhaps he should find a less painful means of communication.”

 

The Doctor sprung to life, the whole of him savage and raw.

 

“I know you can hear me!” he shouted at everything and nothing. “You must focus! We will help you but. You. Must. Focus! Can you do that?”

 

There was nothing. No movement. No sound. They waited- listening, watching, time standing still as they wondered what this madman was expecting-

 

A section of lights ahead of them dimmed for the briefest of seconds.

 

All of the Doctor’s pent up fire blazed into a fierce joy. “That’s it! I knew you could do it!”

 

His face fell not a moment after, alarm taking over just as quickly. “And I do hope I haven’t just congratulated a rather unfortunately timed electrical problem.”

 

A blast of static from the closest intercom had them all leaping out of their skins.

 

"What is it with you and disembodied beings?" Amy shot her question at the Doctor, her bravado evaporating with the worry contorting his brow. “ Can’t you have a nice, _normal_ chat with it , maybe about the weather or something?”

 

 _< Where is that blasted gurney? Leave the tank, you idiot! We’ll want the defibrillator! >_

 

The voice was tinny and distorted through the speakers but the ego was familiar enough.

 

“Is… is that Vidic?” Shaun blurted out before being silenced by a quick shush from the Doctor.

 

Another voice piped in, nearly drowned out by all sorts of beeps and bells. _< Sir, pressures are dropping ! The damage is just too extensive. Moving now could be- >_

 

The furious answer made its maker unmistakable. _< Just do your job!>_

 

Though the intercom fell silent, there was something to take its place.

 

This time, there was no blast of pain or numbing desperation. Just a small, exhausted plea.

 

 _hurry_

 

A hint of motion played at the edges of the Doctor’s mobile mouth though it was nothing like a smile. “We will.”

 

This was an odd trail of breadcrumbs to follow. A flickering light here and there as they passed through one hallway after another .

 

One turn had Ezio pulling up short. “This is not the route the Templars followed,” he said, eyes briefly alight with ethereal vision. “How much can we trust that which leads us?”

 

“Why don’t we find out?” the Doctor murmured, dashing onwards with the lights calling him like a moth to a flame.

 

Intercoms blazed to life, guiding them deeper into Abstergo with stray shouts and orders. Harsh shadows made stairwells more ominous as they were guided down, down. Walls turned from sterile steel to rough concrete, as if they’d been transported to another world. Finally there was one last staircase, the door at the bottom of it small, sealed and forgotten. T he Doctor reached for his sonic screwdriver with a magician's flourish .

 

“I’ll only need a second!”

 

All his flash was for nothing as the door slid open through no trick of his own.

 

Darkness stretched ahead of them, the door revealing a massive garage filled with columns, looking more like an underground Karnak in the belly of Abstergo. There wasn’t much beyond a few cars but there could have been anything lurking in the shadows.

 

A close intercom barked out a warning. _< We have a breach on E level!> _

 

“E level?” Leonardo questioned, fearlessly in the middle of their new surroundings. He traced a painted letter ‘A’ stenciled on one cold gray wall.

 

 _< Deploy men to intercept! We need more time!>_

 

The Doctor breathed out a sigh, smile finally tugging at his lips. “What a clever little thing you are,” he whispered to no one in particular.

 

Chin jutting out to chew on what he was hearing, Shaun gave a nod of comprehension. "He's got control of their security system. They have no idea we’re here."

 

“Undoubtedly!” The Doctor had his hands together in an eager clap, his enthusiasm restored. “I like your style!” was his shout to the air  
before sprinting purposefully on ahead. The rest of them kept to him closely, every pair of eyes watching for any little thing. Every ounce of focus was intent on finding danger before it found them.

 

So it didn’t help when the Doctor came to a sudden halt.

 

Amy sputtered in protest, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic crash. "Oi! Watch it!"

 

The glee running through the Doctor’s veins was gone. “ Oh, dear." He swallowed thickly, face shuttering closed though his eyes darted back and forth underneath his eyelids as if he'd fallen straight into a dream. "That's not good."

 

"'Not good? _Not good_?'" Incredulity took the edge off of Amy's panic. "Could you be a _smidge_ more specific?"

 

“How? It’s just not possible,” he whispered to himself, straining to listen with every fiber of his being.

 

The redhead was ready to boil over but Ezio threw out a halting hand, his Eagle Vision shining. "Something approaches!"

 

Snapping out of his paralysis, the Doctor flapped long arms in agitation. “Don’t be ridiculous! We’re approaching it! Now if you could kindly be _quiet_ so I can figure out - waah! ”

 

His high pitched yelp was unavoidable with Ezio latching on to a fistful of the other man’s shirt. The assassin tossed the Doctor behind the closest column with little ceremony. _“Get down !”_

 

Ezio’s warning had them all scattering to safety, hugging to the widest part of each pylon.

 

All except one.

 

"Shaun."

 

There was a note of familiarity to his name that grabbed Shaun by the throat. He whipped around to find Adam looking drawn and pale.

 

"No,” the man panted, taking one halting step towards Shaun, then another. “Can’t let you-”

 

Realization burned worse than alcohol on an open wound. “Desmond?”

 

Just that name and the dark head snapped back, long, lean body taut and struggling for air.

 

The throttling of an engine had Shaun marching them both behind the bulk of the closest column. He hugged the gasping form to him , only peripherally aware of the beeping of a lorry backing into place . “Desmond,” he whispered with infinite care . “Don’t go. _Please_.”

 

The body went stock still and Shaun could _feel_ the change against him but it only made him hug tighter.

 

"The Sword." The murmur that wasn't Desmond tickled his ear. "It calls to him."

 

The truck’s rear door flew open, revealing a handful of Templars. Booted feet hit the pavement, wary and ready.

 

One man thumbed the radio clipped to his shoulder. “Vehicle is in position, sir!”

 

 _< It’s about time!>_ Vidic’s annoyance was plain even through its solitary speaker. _< Stand back!>_

 

Tons of concrete and steel trembled as what had been a featureless wall split in two, a giant seam carving its way through the rock. Light poured from this crack as it grew wider and wider, revealing a vault within.

 

As dark as the garage had been, this vault –this Repository- was its complete opposite. Sterile and white, the room was packed from floor to ceiling. Machines lined its walls, whirring and beeping in their own language with many hands tending to them. For all its cleanliness, there was an odor that had a physical bite, acrid and sharp.

 

The center of the room contained the bed of one last Animus, bearing no evidence of the blast that destroyed its brothers. It lay empty with all manner of wires and restraints discarded across it , a few technicians working on disassembling it piece by piece .

 

Most of the action was focused instead on a gurney draped in a simple white sheet. Whatever else it contained was obscured by the frantic weave of people tending to it. Hanging over them was Vidic, looking much the worse for wear as he barked out order after order.

 

“We should have been gone twenty minutes ago!” he snarled through his bruised jaw. “Load up the truck. _Now_!”

 

Waiting in the shadows, Amy was more wide eyed by the second. She tossed a whisper over her shoulder. “Doctor, how do they have an Animus that didn't go all explodey ?”

 

There was no response.

 

A quick look around and Ezio could only growl. “ _Cazzo_!”

 

There was no response because there was no Doctor.

 

“There’s only one way!”

 

The Doctor was already shouting while on the move, his fury echoing off the ceilings. His long legged stride carried him through a wave of startled Templars.

 

With only one heartbeat to the next to choose, Ezio’s sharp gesture kept the others in hiding as he peeled away from the column giving him refuge. “ _Folle_!” He followed the Doctor in his madness, blades at the ready.

 

Righteous anger rolled off the Doctor's tongue . “There is only one, single way that your primitive little device could survive a temporal inharmonic!”

 

The crowd fell away, not a one willing to stand against him.

 

“Doctor!” Vidic wasn’t exactly one for warm welcomes, but the blood staining his teeth made his smile grotesque. “Am I _thrilled_ to see you, even with your attack dog. I hope you brought the rest of your menagerie.”

 

Prowling the room, the Doctor refused to rise to the bait. “Where is he?”

 

For the first time, honest emotion crossed Vidic’s face. “Who?”

 

“You know who!“ The Doctor was all thunder. “The artron bomb I set off should have wiped out every functional Animus on this planet yet here’s one safe and sound!” His glare ready to cut down anything that crossed him. “You must have diverted the energy through somewhere. Or some _one_. Someone you had strapped into _that chair_! Who is it?” he demanded. “Another one of your _subjects_?”

He stepped closer, his cold contempt even more terrible than his white hot rage combined. “I’ll ask you one more time. Where. Is. He?”

 

“How about we make a deal?” Vidic offered with preternatural calm. “Show me Mister Miles, and I’ll show you all you need to know .”

 

The Doctor sneered “no deal!” but there was a new voice that spoke over his.

 

“No more!” The man who spoke stood straight and tall at vault’s edge, white knuckled with a fury all his own. “No more games!”

 

Vidic greeted the man he knew as Desmond Miles with a sigh of relief. “Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

 

In the softest of murmurs, he added, “Bring me Miles. I no longer care what happens to the rest.”

 

Before the order was even finished, there was motion.

 

Ezio was immediately on the defensive , knocking the taser from one man just as it was being drawn while swiping the baton from another.

 

So was… Desmond? Adam? Whoever had control, the body struck and struck again, blows coming faster than anyone could counter.

 

And so too was the Doctor, shoving past those in his way to get closer to the gurney, close enough to-

 

The smell.

 

The first thing that hit him was the smell of roasting meat where no such smell should have been.

 

T ime seemed to hang, slowing into infinitely long increments.

 

The gurney held a body- that was clear enough. It lay in state underneath an expanse of white cloth, tiny arcs of residual artron energy dancing across its marred surface. Male in all probability, but the charred flesh made that by no means certain. Hands had been arranged, cradling something to the blackened chest even in repose.

 

A sword.

 

The Sword.

 

Lips disappearing into a thin, solemn line, the Doctor said nothing . There was nothing to say.

 

But just under the sheet's edge, there was a flash of something that caught his eye.

 

War was waged in slow motion all around him. A vague awareness sank in of the two assassins making their way to him, every punch, every kick turning savage once they’d neared enough to see exactly what the gurney had been hiding.

 

He was too caught up in another sort of violence to pay theirs any mind.

 

The Doctor reached out with rare hesitation, lifting up the corner of the sheet by the tiniest fraction. He tunneled on the expanse of normal skin just underneath. It was hard not to flinch as a stray ripple of radiation danced across it, turning it to ash. Though his fingers jumped back of their own volition, the rest of him came closer to watch the scorched border of flesh underneath the sheet turn pink and new.

 

In a way, it was fortunate that he watched so closely.

 

Otherwise he would have completely missed the body drawing a shallow breath.

 

“ Oh … " His hand was at his face, fingers frantically scratching at his cheek as if digging inside for answers. "Oh dear. ”

 

“Pardon me.” There was Vidic on the opposite side of the gurney, ignoring the living, breathing, burning man to reach for the Sword instead. “This is mine, I think.”

 

Klaxons went off overhead, tearing open the air.

 

Squabbling humans clutched at their heads, the shrieking alarms loud enough to puncture ear drums.

 

The Doctor wasn’t fazed. “You leave here with nothing,” he said softly, not caring a whit if his words went unheard.

 

He grabbed the sword by its hilt but a burned lump of flesh that was once a hand covered his own and it-

 

 _Blackness._

 _Or more like emptiness, the kind that went on forever. No up, no down. No left, no right._

 

 _It was only when he moved that a floor appeared underneath him. Smooth and grey, it was patterned with something akin to circuitry. No matter which direction he traveled, a new section appeared as the old one fell away, leaving the sensation that he made no progress through this featureless landscape._

 

 _The Doctor paused. A worn, red cricket ball appeared in one hand. After a moment’s consideration, he hurled the ball into the void with all his might-_

 

 _And nearly toppled over when the ball hit him squarely between the shoulder blades at full force._

 

“Fascinating!”

 

 _A startled Ezio blinked into existence to his left, pulling back the punch meant for the enemy that was no longer there. One quick glance around and his weary shoulders slumped in resignation. “What now?”_

 

 _“Chin up!” The Doctor offered a consoling pat to the shoulder. “I find it’s best just to go with the flow.”_

 

 _Another figure joined them, appearing right before their eyes. Not just one person._

 _Two._

 ___Edges blurred where one man ended and the other began. Even then, both sets of features were laced with pain.  
_

 

"Dio mio!" _Ezio tried to grasp onto one then the other but his hands had no purchase. "We must help them!"_

 

 _The Doctor knocked into his forehead with a knuckle as if this might knock the solution loose. “Yes, yes! Give me a moment!”_

 

 _Finally with face pinched shut, he reached out, hand going through them. It was a struggle but with one, two, three great tugs, the Doctor tumbled backwards with something in his hand._

 

 _Or someone and once where the room had held three men, there were four._

 

 _A young man shivered on hands and knees. "Doctor, you have_ got _to work on your technique. Fuck!"_

 

 _“Desmond!” The Doctor bounced to his feet, offering a hand and flashing a genuine smile full of teeth. "Good to have you back!"_

 

 _"Thanks. I think." Desmond winced, accepting the Doctor’s assistance with one hand and idly rubbing at a spot over his sternum with the other. "Nice being single occupancy again.” Face falling, he turned in all apology to the white haired old man that was their fourth. “No offense!”_

 

 _Even in his older years, the man was still devastatingly handsome as he returned a wry smile, the faintest of scars running across his lips. “None taken.”_

 

 _The Doctor had his arms out in welcome. “You must be Adam! Nice to finally see you in the flesh…. “ He paused, forehead wrinkling in thought. “So to speak.”_

 

 _They grasped hands like old friends and Adam had a warm chuckle for him. “You are an odd one, Doctor.”_

 

 _“I get that a lot!”_

 

 _“So…” Adam waved a cursory hand at the space around them. "What is this place?"_

 

 _“I’m not entirely sure. It feels like a temporotelepathic singularity,” the Doctor mused. “Sort of a psychic time-out,” he clarified once met with looks of confusion. “Though perhaps our host might clarify some of that.”_

 

 _His eyes flashed as he searched the unending shadows. “Why don't you come out and join us? It would be a shame to not meet you properly after all this.”_

 

 _There was a moment of nothingness and then they were no longer four._

 

 _It began as the tiniest of ghosts, silver shapes moved as one like a flock of birds in flight, numbers and letters swirling, sailing in mad patterns. Finally they took settled, coalescing into a silhouette that was shockingly human. The words that emerged were laced with such sorrow. “It’s been so long.”_

 

 _Desmond found his voice first. “Subject Sixteen?”_

 

 _This construct of a man let out a fractured laugh that could have just as easily been taken for a sob._

 

 _“Knew you would come.”_


End file.
